Study On The "Special Preferential Treatment" Of The GSP Of The EU

Generalized System of Preference (GSP) is one of the important ways of the developed countries to provide trade preferences for the developing countries under the framework of the WTO. The system has an important role in increasing exports and speeding up economic development for the developing countries. For its vast market and more countries benefited, the GSP of the EU is the most representative of the GSP system in the developed countries. In the GSP of the EU, there is a special kind of arrangement, which provision if a developing countries to meet their conditions in the arrangement the country can enjoy more favorable than the average GSP trade treatment. This article study whether the Special preferential treatment of the GSP of the EU relating to compliance with WTO provisions, particularly the provisions of the Enabling Clause .This article is divided into four parts:Part I, introduces the origin,institutional development and the status of the GSP , In order to understanding GSP from the grasp of the macro trends.Part II, At first ,briefly introducing the development situation of the GSP of the EU, then detailed combing the historical evolution of the "special differential treatment", analyzing and comparing different kind of special treatment of different periods from the specific legal documents of the EU.Part III, summarized standards ("universal", "non-discriminatory", "non- reciprocity") which determine whether a differential treatment meets the requirements of the WTO, based on the content of the "enabling clause" and the conclusions of "EC tariff case" of the WTO. after analyzing the internal relations of the three criteria, the study determined that if a differential treatment meets the "non-discriminatory" requirement in the "common need," "sufficient connection", "reasonable damages", "due process" after the elements, then the treatment meets the requirements of "non-discriminatory" and "non-reciprocity".Part IV, first a brief summary of various forms of conditionality in the differential treatment of the EU's GSP, the standards above used to test these conditions and come to this conclusion: the arrangement violated the requirement of "common need"; it is debatable whether the differential treatment meets the essential elements of "sufficient connection" ;it is also not clear whether the differential treatment meets the requirement of "reasonable damages"; it is generally consistent with the element of " due procedures" . It is also said that the current "special preferential treatment" of the EU contrary to the requirement of "non-discriminatory", "universal" and "non-reciprocity", then, the differential treatment violated the provision of the Enabling Clause.