WTO Safeguard Measures And Transitional Product Specific Safeguard Mechanism Towards China

WTO Safeguard Measures, comprising the Agreement on safeguard and Article XIX of GATT 1994, has long been deemed as more disruptive, less understood than other normal WTO trade rules. Through providing an analysis of the WTO Safeguard Regime and particularly the Section 16 of China's Accession Protocol on Transitional Product Specific Safeguard Mechanism (TPSSM), we can make better sense of the protective nature of the latter on the basis of concrete comparison between the Agreement on safeguard and TPSSM.Section 16 of China's Accession Protocol on Transitional Product Specific Safeguard Mechanism (TPSSM) is one of the major WTO-Minus rules, which can be invoked by proving a lesser degree of injury than is required by the traditional WTO safeguard measures. The affected country goes through the 'material injury' test, as applied to the anti-dumping measure, rather than the 'serious injury' test as applied to the traditional safeguard measure. TPSSM of China's Accession Protocol also provides WTO Members with means to protect themselves in case of 'Market Diversion'.Although TPSSM of China's Accession Protocol can be problematic in that it erodes WTO's effort toward a more liberalized world trading system, and also in that it reverses WTO's effort toward a more rule-based world trading system, WTO Members are free to impose such measures since Section 16 of China's Accession Protocol prevails over the WTO Agreement on Safeguards according to "lex specialis" principle.Taking into consideration the ultimate goal of the WTO, further introduction of WTO-Minus measures such as the TPSSM should be discouraged in future...