Legal Studies On Consumer Rights Protection In International Trade

After nine rounds of negotiation under the World Trade Organization, the tariffrates of countries in the way of international trade have been substantially reduced.Nonetheless, all kinds of non-tariff barriers have thrived in restraint of global trade.Most outstandingly, the technical barriers lie in the area of consumer rights,environment, human, animal and plants protection. After entry to WTO, it is estimatedthat 2/3 of China's exporters have encountered technical barriers and 2/5 of theirexports have been impacted, which accumulate an annual loss of trade by 20 billion.For the purpose of export promotion, the Ministry of Commerce has publishedTechnical Guide on Exports to bring domestic companies better exposure to varioustechnical standards overseas.Globalization has undoubtedly brought about improved quality, reduced cost andmore choices for consumers. It at the same time has brought the protection ofconsumer rights under spotlight in the field of legislation. Due to the differences inhistory, culture, level of economic development, technological advancement as wellas legal systems, a large difference lies in the conception and protection measures forconsumer rights across countries. With the rapid convergence of global economies,legal disputes surrounding consumer rights shall further evolve. While certain portionof these disputes derives from product quality or trade practices by firms, a large partis provoked by the technical barriers based on protectionism. Considering theambiguity of these barriers, Chinese firms and other institutions in the export fieldhave to be extremely watchful over their developments.Global integration shall lead to unified rules in international transactions anddispute settlement. For countries like China, this all means a learning process. As acase in point, WTO on basis of GATT has evolved TRIPS, TRIMS and GATS. Inorder to bring into alliance with these rules, we've seen substantial improvements inour legal construction. Aside from the fact of honoring our WTO commitments alongthe agreed agenda, we've also noticed the existence of large gaps in our domestic lawregarding consumer protection. The fundamental cause can be attributed to both thelack of public awareness of its importance and the shortage of effective legal vehicles.Therefore, clarification of the legal rules at theoretical and operational levels for theprotection of consumer rights in a comparative approach shall help the identificationof the legal gaps of Chinese legal system and provide illumination for a more advancelegislation system.In the academic circle, most of the discussions focus on product liabilityconcerning consumer interest protection, while others treat these issues in the formatof social and political development. The United Nations Guideline on ConsumerProtection concludes 8 rights for consumers, which are rights to safety, information,choice, voice, redress, education, health and healthy environment. The rights to safetyand health lie at the foot of all other consumer rights and thereby constitute the focalpoint of this thesis. In a market economic system, consumers are composed of thegeneral public citizens. In view of its social, political, economic and diplomaticsignificance, the legal system for consumer protection has extended beyond the borderof private laws, which moves by bold steps into the domain of public laws. This isparticularly true of the consumer rights to safety and health which are now put underthe protection of both private and public laws. In a nutshell, legal system forconsumer rights protection can be summed up into 5 dimensions, which are specificlegislations, legislation over the transaction between businesses and consumers,legislation that indirectly impact consumer interest, and international public laws andconventions. These shape the mainstream structure of this thesis.As our market further opens to overseas imports, more and more foreignproducts has flocked to Chinese market, these without doubt will help to boostdisputes in consumer right protection. Cases such as Toshiba laptop computers, Tefloncooking pots and the GMOs in Nestle coffee have shown the enhanced awareness ofconsumer interest on one hand, but on the other the room for improvement in ourreactionary mechanism and legal systems.As a leading trade nation and member of WTO, disputes under the framework ofWTO Dispute Settlement Body will definitely increase both in absolute numbers aswell in variety and complexity, which is also true in cases pertinent to consumerinterest protection. A better understanding into WTO Dispute Settlement Body and itsrules and procedures will help to optimize our trade interest and minimize our cost sofar as concerned.The international agreements such as General Agreement on Trade in Servicesand Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures underWTO have paved the foundation for a regulated framework over global tradeconcerning environment, human health and safety, with the aim of promoting fairtrade. However, these are still viewed as short of consumer perspective. EuropeanUnion is stepping up the process of legal unification and harmonization. The resultantConsumer Contract Law will not only exert significant impact on its 25 members, butalso on the exporting countries at large into this region. Various countries and regionsare promulgating all kinds of singular rules over the protection of consumer interestand these rules proliferate rapidly across the globe. The Registration, Evaluation andAuthorization of Chemicals System newly developed by EU is quickly reacted by theUnited States and Japan in formulating essentially rules in similar nature. As animmediate result, China's export in chemical related products shall sustain enormousamount of losses and our domestic unemployment in related industries shallaccumulate by six digits. Similarly, the stringent requirements over productregistration and authentication, as well as procedural documentation and labeling evenunder the permissible zone under the framework of WTO rules, will pose harshchallenges to our export trade.In order to protect and promote consumer interest, to avoid legal complicationsin international trade, the ultimate solution can only be found in the advancement ofquality management and control. The significance of this conception is both felt bycorporate business strategy, both also exhibited in our national development strategy.Now that the protection of consumer interest is an issue of coordinated system, aholistic approach both at horizontal level and along vertical lines is a necessaryguideline to start. This guiding philosophy will be found of practical utility for bothbusiness firms and national legislatures. As such, the research in consumer interestprotection cannot afford to superficially confine itself merely at the legal dimension,this thesis attempts to break the traditionally accepted research convention, andpenetrate into the analysis of the quality control, inspection and certification standardsdeveloped by world authorities including the International Standard Organization andWorld Health Organization, with an aim to provide insights for improvement both forChinese companies and legislators.Encompassing the issue of consumer interest protection, with nearly 30 years ofendeavor, we have built a preliminary legal infrastructure which includes Law onProduction Quality, Law on Consumer Interest Protection, and Law on Food Health aswell as Law on Pricing and Law on Advertising. However, in comparison withwestern countries, and in view of the foreign-related disputes our businesses andindividuals face in this area, further improvement is crucial in our legal construction.Certain blind points and conflicts in our own laws and regulations will call forcontinued efforts of fulfillment and streamlining. In the domain of international trade,we have developed various rules based on our Foreign Trade Law, but these remain anad hoc approach. More fundamentally, in order to converge onto the internationaltrack, we have to, as a premise, put in place our own legal track as a first priority.For the sake of sustainable development of our international trade and for thesuccessful settlement of legal disputes in the field of consumer rights protection, thethesis recommends a number of measures to be taken by governmental institutionsand business firms. To begin with, the conceptual transformation and pragmaticapproach are essential, which requires attitudinal adjustment, because hostility,xenophobia and retaliation would likely end up in tension and mutual rejection.Therefore, a rationalized perspective and action for the improvement of productquality and legislative quality are and will remain a long-term focus. In addition, it ishighly necessary by utilizing international rules and norms such as those developedunder the WTO framework, UN Food and Agriculture Organization and World HealthOrganization to reinforce the bilateral and multilateral consultation mechanism, tobuild and foster the surveillance system over the movement in international tradeactivities, to participate and influence in the formulation of international rules.