Comparative Study On Safeguard Measures Of WTO

Safeguard Measures which are described as the valve of world free trade system were originally regulated in Agreement on Trade Reciprocity between America and Mexico, promoted by America, adopted by Article 19 of GATT1947 and succeeded by Article 19 of GATT1994 at last. An the end of the Uruguay Round negotiation, the Agreement on Safeguard Measures was achieved, therefore the relative completion safeguard measure system was established in WTO. This system which seems to object to free trade system aims to provide flexibility to members when fulfilling the obligations they have promised, so that member could temporally escape the obligation or conducts in special circumstances. Safeguard measures are playing a significant role in protecting domestic industries. In addition, several other safeguard measures exist in special area, such as special safeguard measure in agriculture area, transitional safeguard measure in textile and clothing area, and emergency safeguard measure in trade in service area. When China accessed to WTO, Protocol of Accession of the People's Republic of China and Report of the Working Party on the Accession of China regulated specific good transitional safeguard measures.Different types of safeguard measures differ from applying subject, appliance factors and duration, etc, so it is necessary to compare them in theses aspects. This paper is composed of three parts:In the first part, outline the type of safeguard measures in WTO and the history and development of safeguard measures, then introduce the concept and features of safeguard measures.In the second part, introduce the contains of safeguard measures in details and make comparisons in applying subject, applying factors and duration. Then make a statement of the appliance of safeguard measures and specific safeguard measures in the base of substantial statistics and cases in which China was the defendant so as to analyze the serious damage of specific safeguard measures to China.In the third part, analyze the positive and negative effect of safeguard measures on China, then point out the defects and problems of legislation and practice in safeguard measures area, at last make some advices and countermeasures to solve it.