Wto Safeguards System Research

A safeguard measure refers to a kind of restrictive measure onimports, adopted by a government in certain conditions under fair tradingcontext. In recent years, the WTO members have increasingly appliedsafeguard measures. Before China's entry into WTO, China didn't haveany legal provisions concerning safeguard measures, and China carriedout few researches on them. However, in the several years following theaccession for China to WTO, the safeguard measures have been imposedupon the products originating in China for a couple of times. In particular,For other WTO members, the special safeguard measures pursuant to thepromises made by China when China's entry into WTO have beenbecome a powerful trading means to protect their domestic industries asto restrict the importation of products originating in China. Therefore, it'snecessary to conduct some studies on this issue. This essay is to be divided into 4 chapters to expound on the relevantcontents of safeguard measures and China's countermeasures based onour special conditions and practices. Chapter Ⅰ General. I will describe the general picture of the systemof safeguard measures. First, I give the definitions of safeguard clauseand safeguard measures, classify the safeguard measures and list out thesafeguard measures particular to China. In order to make the definition ofsafeguard measures more understandable, the origin, developmentprocess and the final Agreement on Safeguard Measures reached atUruguay Round are also discussed. Secondly, I explain the legalframework of the system of safeguard measures, laying emphasis onanalyzing the relationship between Article XIX and Agreement onSafeguard Measures. Finally, I point out the basic features of safeguardmeasures and compare them with anti-dumping measures andcountervailing measures. Chapter Ⅱ Theoretical analysis on the system of safeguardmeasures—its rationality and value. First, I adopt the empirical studymethod to analyze the various factors that affect the system of safeguardmeasures, discussing the rationality of its existence from differentperspectives. Politically, the pressure of the various interest groups inWTO members often influence the decision-making of governmentofficials, making the final decision, to some extent, represent the interestand benefit of the interest groups rather than that of the whole countryand society. It's the result of public choice. Economically, while thevarious trading protection theories tries to explain the rationality oftrading protection policies, they also provide the theoretical basis forexplaining the system of safeguard measures—one part of tradingprotection system. Following a review on the most influential tradingprotection theory brought forward by Liszt, I analyze the economicfactors, such as the formation of economic homogeneity trend, economicunbalanced development and imperfection of international market, whichlead to the existence of the system of safeguard measures.Jurisprudentially, the ancient principle of "Change of Situation" has beenapplied in international treaties, owing to its important role in balancingthe rights and obligations of contracting parties and avoiding the unfairconsequences. One of the premises of application of safeguard measures-- "appearance of unexpected change of situations"—is just the originalmeaning of "Change of Situation". Secondly, based on the precedinganalyses, I put forward and explain the three values of safeguardmeasures, namely, its system value, economic value and jurisprudentialvalue. Its system value is to allow WTO members to deviate from theirobligations to the necessary extent so as to maintain and strengthen thedevelopment of trade freedom at a higher level. Its economic value is toset the boundary of concession obligations borne by WTO members andto harmonize the interest and benefit of each Member, so as to realize theunity of free and fair trading and to provide a "safety valve" for domesticeconomy and international trade. Its jurisprudential value is to recover thedamage caused by the ap...