The Study On The WTO's Trade Policy Review Mechanism

As Annex 3 of Marrakesh Agreement Establishing World Trade Organization, TPRM is the first multilateral agreement of Uruguay Round. It comes into being and develops on the basis of summarizing the experience and lessons from over 40 years'operation of GATT. This mechanism regularly investigates the trade policies of its members, most of which are countries , analyses and evaluates the effects of their trade polices and practices on the multi-lateral trading system for the purpose of promoting adherence to WTO rules and commitments. After more than 10 years of operation, TPRM has begun to pay off. The effective functioning of TPRM has played an important role on the multilateral trading system and the members that are reviewed. This paper attempts to study on TPRM systematically and in-depth, the author expects this study will benefit for the trade policy review.The paper can be divided into 4 chapters: The first chapter describes the evolution of TPRM, the purpose of TPRM, the standard of review and the procedural issues of TPRM. In the thesis, the author firstly points out that TPRM has undergone an unusual process: from GATT rules and Tokyo Round Negotiation to Uruguary Round Negotiation. Until after the WTO was established in 1995, TPRM was applied formally. It not simply aims at the trade in goods, but extends to the field of intellectual property and trade in services. GATT 1994 Annex 3A explain the following three objectives of TPRM: First, the purpose of the TPRM is to contribute to improved adherence by all Members to rules, disciplines and commitments. Second, it will achieve greater transparency and understand the trade policies and practices of Members. Thirdly, under the WTO framework, it is possible to regularly evaluate the trade policies and practices of all members and their impacts on the operation of the multilateral trading system. On the relations between the three objectives, the third objective is the organization's mission of the TPRM in reality, the second objective is the transparency function of TPRM, and the first goal is the ultimate goal of TPRM. They have a "goal-function-task" on the relationship.TPRM also has two legal and economic criteria. Legal criteria emphasize starting from the text of the law, and dialysis true meaning of legal words. Economic criteria note that parameters are used to describe the changes of the Members'trade policy and evaluate their finances and the financial impact on the multilateral trading system. For the process of TPRM, the author uses two forms directly reflecting the assessment and evaluation stages of the cycle, and focus on the Secretariat reports and Government reports.The second chapter describes the role of TPRM. The author discourse the true value of TPRM from a new perspective. TPRM has two important roles. It first manifested in the role as a "forum". This value reflects the following two aspects: one is the value to the Members that is reviewed. TPRM can provide a valuable input into national policy making, serving as an independent, objective assessment of trade and economic policies; Members have also commented on the extent to which the experience of review has helped to strengthen inter-agency discussion and co-operation in their own countries. TPRM doesn't make a judgment on the trade policies and practices of the Members, but takes a narrative tone. It specifies the policies and practices that do not conform to WTO rules, disciplines and obligations. It creates a "moral" pressure to these Members and urges those countries to improve their ability to formulate policy and the policy-making organs in foreign trade policy. The other value is to improve the value of trading system. Members have also commented on the extent to which the experience of review has helped to strengthen inter-agency discussion and co-operation in their own countries. Otherwise, TPRM is not only review conduct the rules of the WTO Code, but also review the outside rules. This assessment determines the newly emerging issues that can be found in a broad sense in international trade practices, and it is vital for the healthy and stable operation of the international trading system.The value of TPRM also reflects the role to the developing countries. This value includes two aspects: On one hand, it is beneficial to trade policies of developing countries. In general, developing countries have comparative lack of the senior experts on international economic, trade, law, particularly the rules of the WTO. Therefore, the enactment of the relevant policies and regulations may be plagued with many problems. They may not correctly analyze the impact of major trading partners'trade measures. TPRM will state and assess the analysis and evaluation of trade policies and practices. It will make up for the shortcomings and weaknesses of the developing countries in this regard. The TPRM is good both for policy credibility in developing countries and market access in export markets. The TPRM contributes to political support for trade reform at home, to the general orientation of the economy toward tradable activities, and to investor confidence. The transparency of the review makes future bilateral or multilateral negotiations become invisible on the basis of negotiations with each other or against the crux of the problem, forcing the other side to make commitments or concessions.The third chapter further analyses the challenges that is faced by TPRM. First challenge: how to meet existing program requirements for an expansion of the number of reviews so that all countries are covered as scheduled in the agreed cycle of reviews? This preoccupation has intensified with the increased coverage of trade-related measures, and, hence, the increased workload, under the enlarged mandate of the WTO. Second challenge: how to safeguard developing countries'interests? Due to the level of economic restrictions, developing countries often locate on passive and disadvantageous position. The Doha Round is named Development Round. It means TPRM is possible the best tool for eradicating poverty. Third challenge: how to resolved pressures caused by regional and bilateral arrangements? The fourth challenge: how to strengthen the coordination and closing the relationship between the three mechanisms in the WTO, i.e., TPRM, DSB and the negotiation? The proposals for improving include changing review frequencies, reviewing small countries collectively, increasing personnel for reviewing, and helping developing countries in capacity-building and shorten the secretariat's report.In Chapter 4, considering the realities after China's access into WTO, much emphasis is placed on the suggestions and countermeasures on China's better involvement into TPRM. In 2006, China accepted the first formal review since joining WTO. The parties give a high evaluation, but the WTO Secretariat report also pointed out the existence of a series of problems. The author provides following suggestions: the government should draft government report carefully, preparing joining in the review, or take part in the review as more as possible, or enforce national transparency, or disseminate and research on the TPRM.