Study On The Legal Issues Of Free Trade Area

In recent years,with the development of the regional ecnomic cooperation,the amount of Free Trade Area grows rapidly and deeply.The Free Trade Area Which is a form of regional trade arrangements exists as the exception of the multilateral free trade arrangement law system.The original legislative Purpose is to improve the multilateral free trade arrangements by means of being a complementarity.It seems like,because the world's proeess of the multilatal free trade system is unprosperous, more countries tends to get in to the conclusion of Free Trade Agreement。Some people have the thoughts that the development of the Free Trade Area is a backdraw which will block the development of the multilateral trade system.Thus it must be controlled even restricted.So,it becomes necessary that the nature and function of the Free Trade Area should be expounded.In this article,the methods of enumeration and comparation is used to qualify the free trade areas and the influence to the multilateral free trade system.At last,legal countermeasures is brought forward on the basis of the analysis upon.The full text is divided into four major parts.In the first part the meaning of free trade areas and forms are analyzed,the concept of free trade areas with the scope is defined and characteristics of a free trade area is analyzed and summarized.At the same time,the legal basis of the free trade areas,including GATT1947 Article 24, GATS Article 5 and the "enabling clause" of free trade areas are analyzed detaily.In the second part,the international community,the existing free trade area are analyzed mainly,three influential regional free trade areas and the characteristics and the contents of bilateral free trade areas are separately listed,including the North American Free Trade Area,the European Union and China - ASEAN Free Trade Area. The third part shows the dialectical relationship between the free trade areas and the multilateral trading system.This part,mainly from both sides,analyzes the negative impact and the positive impact of the existing free trade areas and concludes that the free trade areas promote the objectives of the multilateral trade system implementation,and promote the democratization of the multilateral trade system,and provide an effective and useful supplementary reference for the multilateral trade system.But we should not overlook the negative effects of free-trade areas on the multilateral trade system.The free trade areas poses a serious challenge to WTO most-favored-nation principle and its dispute settlement mechanism,resulting in the multilateral trading system WTO negotiations stalled,fragmentation of WTO rules, ahd having a centrifugal effect.Therefore,we should look at the dialectical impact of free trade areas.The fourth part shows the current status and the problems of the free trade areas which our country take part in.After the combination of the previous text, we can focus on the problems of construction of China - ASEAN FTA of the procession and put forward some legal suggestion.As a large and a influential developing country,China should promote the development of free trade areas constantly,so that the country's economic and trade develops with the world economy and national economic and trade progresses.