Study Of The Legal Issues Of Regional Trade Agreements Under The Wto System

In resent years, regional economic integration has obviously developed at a faster speed in parallel with international economic globalization, and the Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) has also boomed remarkably. However, the WTO multilateral trade negotiations have met with many obstacles. This thesis studies the "RTAs", tries to illustrate the legal basis of its origination, connotation and situation of existence, and analyses its influence on multilateral trade system. In addition, according to the Chinese practice in the RTAs, the thesis makes suggestions on China's adaptation and countermeasures to the RTAs under multilateral trade system.Apart from the Preface and the Concluding Remarks, the thesis consists of four chapters.Chapter one first elaborates the formation and development of the RTAs and analyses the basic concept of the RTAs and regional economic integration. Meanwhile, the legal basis of the existence of the RTAs under the international law is also dealt with in this chapter.Chapter two mainly discusses the influence of the RTAs on multilateral trade system. It points out that the conflict between international economic globalization and national sovereignty is the fundamental driving force and the underlying reason of the boom of the RTAs. The RTAs is of both positive and negative influence on multilateral trade system. On the one hand, the RTAs is an experiment field of multilateral trade regulations; on the other hand, the RTAs indeed affects the practice of Most Favorite Nation Treatment under multilateral trade system. The harmonious co-existence of the RTAs and multilateral trade system on the interactive coordination basis is the real practical way of development.Chapter three predicts the future development of regional trade agreement, and discusses some examples of China's taking part in the RTAs. It concludes that the RTAs will become the main stream in the development of international trade. What's more, East Asia is going to be a new battle field of regional economic integration.Chapter four points out the legal countermeasures that China may adopt when taking part in the RTAs and suggests China form the RTAs under the framework of multilateral trade system in three different levels.