Study On The WTO General Exception Clause

There exist a lot of complicated and widespread exception clauses in the WTO agreements. The general exception clauses, Among them, especially draw attention. They exist widespread and involve trade in Goods, trade in service, trade-related intellectual property etc. They allow WTO members to take measures to derogate and exempt from WTO obligations in order to safeguard specific public policy object and public interests. They make it possible to exempt WTO members from their obligations in order to safeguard their public interest and economic security . Since our country has become WTO member. In the practice of implementing WTO agreements, we have the full right to use WTO general exception clause legally and effectively so that we can carry out trade-restrictive measures in the specific situation to safeguard our county' s economic sovereignty and security. It can be seen that it is very significant to study WTO general exception clauses. However, No study has been made on general exception clause in our country' s circle of International Law. This paper aims at making preliminary study and putting forward comprehensive^ practical legal countermeasures in view of the defects of our county' s legislation and practice.The paper is composed of five sections. The first section is on introduction. It indicates the necessity and practical significance of the research on WTO general exception clauses.The second section is a survey of WTO general exception clauses. At first, The concept and classification of exceptions are pointed out, And then the concept and the framework of general exception clauses are set out, then the forming history, origin and legal features of generalexception clauses are expounded.The third section mainly expounds the legal practice of using WTO general exception clauses. At first, The basic situation of using WTO general exception clauses is retrospected, Then the legal practice of using WTO general exception clauses is expounded.The fourth section analyses the requirements of using WTO general exception clauses. In this section, The paper mainly analyses such important requirements as "not constitute a means of arbitrary or unjustifiable discrimination, of a disguised restriction on international trade" x "necessary to protect human, animal or plant life or health" ^ "relating to the conservation of exhaustible natural resources" , "made effective in conjunction with restrictions on domestic production or consumption" .The fifth section is about Chinese legal countermeasures to WTO general exception clause. After introducing the present legal situation of Chinese usage of general exception clauses and its deficiency. It puts forward the countermeasures that our country should take.