Study On The Barriers To Textiles/clothing Labellings In Non-agricultural Market Access (nama) Negotiations Of Wto

With the elimination of tariffs barriers, developed countries have turned to set up more and more non-tariff barriers to trade. Because of legitimacy in name and hidden and effectiveness in practice, Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) has been used as an important tool to obstruct international trade by developed countries. Labelling requirement is an important part of TBT, and while our country and other WTO members are also aware of that, textiles/clothing labelling which becoming the focus of trade protectionist measures, has led to some unnecessary obstacles in international trade, and has been influenced and restricted fair competition in the global textiles and clothing. Therefore, most of members pay more attention to textiles/clothing labeling, to develop or modify laws and regulations and standards relevant it. In the WTO market access for non-agricultural products (NAMA) negotiations, USA and EU had presented proposals on the unification of textiles/clothing labelling several times.China, as a textiles/clothing export great country, should pay more attention to TBT, which arising from labelling requirement and bringing about adverse effects on China's textiles and clothing imports and exports. In particular, in the face of EU and USA labels the proposal, we should take proactive measures and put forward our own proposals in the WTO non-agricultural market access negotiations, in order to better cope with technical barriers to trade which set by developed countries. This is exactly the purpose of this peper.Firstly, this paper introduced the textiles/clothing on the technical barriers to trade (hereinafter referred to as TBT) in brief, which especially is due to "labelling requirements", as well as some national countries concerns on the textiles/clothing labeling and research situation at present.Textiles/clothing labellings laws, regulations and standards of China and major trading countries, including USA, Canada, Australia, Japan, the EU and its members and so on, were investigated and compared systematically. And then the differences of the main contents (fiber content, care instructions, country of origin, safety information, etc.) marked on the textiles/clothing labellings were found out in these countries. At the same time, some cases of non-conforming product which caused by labellings of domestic and foreign textiles/clothing used non-standard, inaccurate were collected, collated and analyzed, to make clear labeled unqualified reasons, the impact and the solutions.Secondly, the information on Europe and USA "textiles/clothing labeling" proposals, including the EU proposal, USA proposal, as well as Europe and USA united proposal were instroducted detailed, and the differences were identified between them. Meanwhile, considering the response or position on the proposal of the various countries and regions, as well as trade associations, to study the substance of the proposals, the China labeling proposal foothold and focus were determined.Finally, on the basis of above study, according to the established foothold and focus, an in-depth and thorough research on the specific content of the labellings and how to mark the labellings was carried on. The specific contents of the labellings include fiber content, care instructions, country of origin, consumer safety information, size, and some other contents (such as executive standards, product safety type, conformity grades, etc.); how to mark the labellings include the use of language, durability, bonding or attaching means (using the tag, or sewing labels, or otherwise) and so on. While investigating these two parts, the factors that affected the labellings would be fully taken into account, such as consumer habits, consumer costs, government regulations and other trade associations supervisions; technical regulations and standards, national conditions etc.; even some non-controllable factors, such as customer's requirements.Through detailed introduction and summary on the main contents of the textiles/clothing labellings, a comprehensive and systematic understanding of the textiles/clothing labellings was obtained. On this basis, further analysis and evaluation were done on the Europe and USA' 'labelling' proposal, and the trends of textiles/clothing labellings' development was drawn and summarized。Finally, contacting with the current measures to deal with textile and clothing 'labellings' barriers, from our manufacturers, brokers, consumers and the government or regulatory agency's point of view, the proposal which is favorable for China to deal with textile and clothing 'labellings' barriers was proposed.