Study On "Significant Trade Diversion" Of Transitional Product-Specific Safeguard Mechanism

Protocol on the Accession of the People's Republic of China stipulates"significant trade diversion"as one qualification to startup the"transitional product-specific safeguard mechanism"of Article 16."Significant trade diversion"is a wholly new concept. Contents of the legal documents of China's accession are not so clear in this area. So other WTO members, as the imported country, have broad discretions over the conducting of this concept. Significant trade diversion mechanism has become an obstruction to the trade-development of our country. In order to ascertain the criterions of significant trade diversion, to reveal the nature of protectionism of this mechanism, and to present a guide for China to cope with the significant trade-diversion investigations against Chinese products by other WTO members, this paper conducts a pilot study on significant trade diversion. The paper is divided into 4 chapters except for Preface and Conclusion.Chapter 1 introduces the economic and legal resources of the concept of"trade diversion", and explains the meanings thereof.Chapter 2 analyses the rules of interpretation of treaties and makes it clear that how they are used in the study of significant trade diversion, then analyses the criterions of significant trade diversion,"increase in imports","causal relationship"and"criterion of significance", with these rules by resorting to the provisions of Agreement on Safeguards and cases of DSB.Chapter 3 compares significant trade diversion with"trade diversion"practices in international trade area and"market disruption"which is another key word of transitional product-specific safeguard mechanism, in order to reveal the characteristic and nature of protectionism of significant trade diversion.Chapter 4 introduces the national legislations of some WTO members, and makes a brief comment thereof, then proposes some countermeasures of our country.