Economics Analysis Of The Education Service Term Under WTO Agreement

As one of the founding members of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), influenced by the change of regime, ideological differences and the Cold War and other factors, China has long been excluded from the agreement. China P.R has continuously launched active negotiations to recover tariffs member seat. Until 1995, when GATT evolved to the World Trade Organization (WTO), China began the hard negotiations for its accession to WTO. After filling the sincerity of the substantial reduction of tariffs and hard bilateral negotiations with the United States, European Union, Mexico and other countries and economies. In September 2001, China reached a bilateral agreement with all 37 WTO member countries that China were required to have bilateral talks with, which was adopted at the Doha WTO Ministerial Conference in November, be approved to join WTO. At 11 December 2001,China finally acquired the membership of WTO.Compared with the GATT which is applied to the provisions of trade in goods, WTO provisions are not only applied for the trade in goods, but also for trade in services and intellectual property. Currently, the international trade has developed from mode of "commodity trade first, supplemented by service trade " into mode of" common development on merchandise trade and services trade", and in the foreseeable future, it will develop with the trend of "service trade first, supplemented by commodity trade ". It is obvious that the service trade has become an important part of international trade, and its importance will continue to increase over time.According to WTO Statistics and the division of Information Systems Bureau, education service one of categories in total 12 services trade categories. According to product catalog generally accepted by Member States. Trade in Education Services are divided into primary education services, secondary education services, higher education services, adult education services and other educational services.47 WTO member countries, including China, has made specific commitments to enter the world educational market system especially at the field of education services trade. In the recent years, WTO agreement in educational services has played an active role in rationally allocating of global education resources, promoting a fair competition in international trade in education services, stimulating Member States to open the market of educational services and improving the quality and level of educational services, which has promoted a rapid development in international education services trade in relevant Member States. But, because of the imbalanced distribution of international education resources, the relative concentration of superior educational services products (concentrated in a few developed countries), the great influence from educational services to a country's livelihood, ideology, cultural heritage, some relevant provisions of the education service in WTO agreement will also play the role of obstruction and destruction to Member States education, especially some developing countries, probably disrupt the normal education of a country, and may even undermine a country's economic and social development. This is the reason why only 47 in total 150 WTO members had signed trade agreements in education services, and most of them selectively opened their education market.Both services trade and merchandise trade, are the study area of economics, but they have significant differences in regulation and oversight:Regulation and oversight of merchandise trade mainly relies on technical barriers such as tariffs, quotas, while services trade mainly relies on state laws and regulations, In addition, WTO rules are established on the basis of three typical market economy theories:a 19th century British economist's "invisible hand theory" and Ricardo's "comparative advantage interest theory" and "HOS theory", so we must use the methods of legal economics and play the advantages of interdisciplinary infiltration, in order to better reveal the nature and development of WTO law. Therefore, after the analysis of the connotation of the terms of education services, the characteristics of the product and the status of international education service trade with the perspective of economics, we can use the experience of other countries for reference, according to nation conditions, to develop appropriate policies, laws and regulations. It has important practical significance for a country to response to the impact and challenges on trade of education services under WTO rules, protect and promote their education and scientific development of international trade in education services.This paper started with study of the formation of educational services provisions of WTO agreements and domestic and international status of relative theories. After economic analysis of the nature of educational service products, the allocation efficiency of educational services resource, comparative advantage of different education services and the cost-benefit of educational services provisions of WTO agreement, it described the connotation and application of educational services provisions of WTO agreements, by the comparative analysis of different countries' response to the provisions, and ultimately with the reality in China, put forward a proposal that China should promote domestic legislation to adapt to the provisions of WTO education service.