A Study On WTO's Legal Regulations Concerning Regional Trade Arrangements

After World War â…¡, the regional trade arrangements (RTAs) have developed rapidly, the multilateral trade system (MTS) and RTAs' co-existence and development becomes the essential characteristic in the territory of world economic. On the one hand, WTO' s establishment and function propels the economic globalization; on the other hand, RTAs' flourishing sets off the climax of regional economic integration. What' s the connection between RTAs and MTS? How shall we cope with the relation between China and RTAs? These problems are of great significance to China' s futural growth. The author starts to research on WTO' s legal regulations concerning RTAs under such background at home and abroad.This thesis is divided into five parts. Part â…  analyzes the connotation, features and theories related; Part â…¡ reviews the history of RTAs, analyzes the current situation of RTAs and gives a commentary on main RTAs in the world; Part â…¢ gives a careful analysis and explanation of WTO' s legal regulations concerning RTAs, that is GATT1947 Article â…©â…©â…£, Understanding on the Interpretation of Article â…©â…©â…£ of the GATT1994, General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) V and Tokyo Round 1979 Enabling Clause; Part â…£ Studies the relationship between RTAs and MTS. At first, the paper gives a comprehensive appraisal of them, then discusses the RTAs' devotion and challenges to MTS, and draws a conclusion that they are supplements and complements each other; Part V, which is aiming at the dealing with the relation between RTAs and China, establishment of closer economic partnership arrangement (CEPA) between Mainland and Taiwan, puts forward legal and strategic countermeasures related.