Reformation Of Special And Differential Treatment Provisions From WTO

With the development of economic globalization and global value chain,the reform of WTO is imperative in order to meet the development demands of different WTO members.However,there are many controversies between developing and developed countries on special and differential treatment.The main disputes focus on the applicability of special and differential treatment provisions,the object of application,and how to define the developing countries where special and differential treatment applies.The developed countries,represented by the United States,believe that it is questionable to regard self declaration as a way of developing countries within the framework of WTO.In other words,they believe that some countries obtain the status of developing countries by means of self-declaration and enjoy special and differential treatment by virtue of this status.This kind of way may cause abuse,make the developed countries face unfair competition,and also make the multilateral trade negotiations under the framework of WTO difficult to carry out smoothly.One of the most criticized countries is China.The United States believes that China should not continue to be recognized as a developing country.WTO should clearly define what special and differential treatment can enjoy,and some countries should not be allowed to enjoy special and differential treatment as developing countries.There is no doubt that China has made great progress in trade,economy and society in the past few decades.Since China's accession to the WTO,it has indeed made remarkable economic achievements.However,in some other indicators,it still lags far behind the developed members,especially in terms of per capita GDP,per capita income,scientific and technological development,and economic structure.The gap in economic development between China and its developed members is still wide.Therefore,the United States selectively uses individual overall indicators to exaggerate the level of development,and thus opposes China's right to use SDT.From this point of view,the US view is biased.Therefore,for China,how to respond to the query of developed countries like European countries and America is one of the questions that this paper hopes to answer.The existing literature has discussed and studied the developing countries and the special and differential treatment enjoyed by developing countries,but the view on whether the special and differential treatment is reasonable is vague and has obvious negative tendency(Ornelas,2016).Then,the application basis of special and differential treatment for developing countries still needs to be further sorted out.In addition,as the focus of China and the United States in the WTO reform,the identity of developing countries and the scope of application of special and differential treatment have been mentioned in relevant literature,but there is no clear theoretical basis for China as a developing country.Developed countries such as Europe and the United States question China's identity as a developing country.As a developing country,China has repeatedly reiterated its position that the principle of "special and differential treatment" is an important cornerstone of WTO and an important institutional guarantee for developing countries to participate in economic globalization and realize their own development.Therefore,it is necessary and urgent to clarify the essence and applicability of special and differential treatment.Since China's accession to the WTO,China's economy has been developing rapidly.The developed countries represented by the United States have been questioning China's right to enjoy special and differential treatment.Fundamentally,whether China really benefits from this right has become an important issue to be answered.From the perspective of agreement utilization rate,some literatures have pointed out that China mainly uses special and differential treatment provisions under agricultural agreements.However,such broad expressions do not involve the specific product level.In other words,it is not clear which products China has used special and differential treatment provisions on.In the existing literature,the relevant research is also very rare.Therefore,this paper intends to use the DID model to analyze the export level of different products in China's agricultural sector and non-agricultural sector,so as to explore the actual benefits of special and differential treatment provisions of China.This paper mainly includes seven chapters.In the introduction of the first chapter,this paper puts forward the topics to be studied,analyzes the background and significance of the topic,briefly describes the research ideas and main contents,and points out the innovation and shortcomings of this paper.The second chapter combs the existing research literatures on special and differential treatment.This paper reviews the literatures from three aspects:the positive,limited and negative effects of special and differential treatment,as well as its renewal and improvement,points out the shortcomings of the existing research,and puts forward the topics to be studied in this paper.The third chapter introduces the meaning of developing countries and special and differential treatment within the framework of WTO,and explains the evolution,application basis and existing disputes of developing countries'self-declaration mode.The fourth chapter theoretically expounds the essence of special and differential treatment,analyzes its theoretical logic,and then expounds the significance of special and differential treatment to developing countries and the world by using the game model constructed by Saggi and sengul(2009).The fifth chapter analyzes the specific use of special and differential treatment clauses,and introduces the classification,overall use of special and differential treatment clauses and SDT clauses in some WTO agreements.On this basis,it analyzes the specific situation of China's application of special and differential treatment,and puts forward China's role orientation in WTO.The sixth chapter introduces the tax rate distribution and overall growth trend of some products in China,makes an empirical analysis on China's benefits from special and differential treatment,and analyzes which products and sectors China enjoys SDT by constructing a double difference model.According to the empirical results,this paper makes a further analysis and obtains the overall analysis of China's SDT benefits.The seventh chapter puts forward the significance of retaining special and differential treatment,puts forward China's countermeasures and suggestions on the reform of special and differential treatment clauses,and then reasonably responds to the demands of developed countries.Based on the practical background and the previous literature research results,this paper puts forward that:within the framework of WTO,the self-declaration of developing countries has its applicable basis,and continues to retain the self-declaration within the framework of WTO;the essence of special and differential treatment is the right to development.The basis of applying special and differential treatment to developing countries remains unchanged.Developing countries should enjoy special and differential treatment.As a developing country,China has its theoretical basis,practical basis and legal basis;to reform special and differential treatment clauses,we should adopt the strategy of product differentiation.At the same time,we should actively promote the formulation of the graduation clause of special and differential treatment,and actively promote the cooperation between WTO and other international organizations on development issues.In addition,this paper also points out that China's status in the WTO should be a super large emerging economy,but due to the differences in regions and departments,which further determines China's status and role in the WTO.Therefore,in order to make greater contribution,China can consider abandoning or reducing some special and differential treatment provisions;China should regard adhering to the development strategy of developing countries and maintaining its status as a developing country in WTO as two different things.That is to say,due to the existence of differences in China's development,China should appropriately change its strategy according to its own actual situation in the specific WTO negotiations,which is to construct product differences in the scope of application of special and differential treatment.It is more realistic to form the negotiation strategy of special and differential treatment of product differentiation.Furthermore,China should adhere to the status of developing country in the general sense,and change it into the negotiation differentiation goal of striving for the applicability of special and differential treatment under various products.Obviously,this empirical conclusion can also be extended to the negotiation of regional,bilateral and multilateral agreements.By measuring the tariff sensitivity of products,we can build the differentiate negotiation goal from the perspective of products.As the core power of WTO,China actively promotes SDT reform,which will help to break the deadlock of WTO reform and make this trade organization glow with new vitality.