Studies On Legal Issues Of Export Trade Control Measures

The game playing between free trade and trade control has never stopped. The WTO and countries start turning attention from the import trade control measures——"market access"to export restriction measures——"market out"now. This triggers scholars'research on the export restriction measures both at home and abroad. Although our country's export restriction measures on raw materials is based on protecting the environment and resources, this touches the relevant nerve of interest of developed countries deeply. Being able to gain lasting and cheap raw materials which future hi-tech industry's development need from our country become their real motives for filing the complaint to the WTO."The case of China's export restriction measures on raw materials"causes our relevant legal thinking for the occurrence of export restriction measures. In this case, making more research on export restriction measures is a very urgent and practical subject.In order to reflect and perfect export restrictions in our country, this article takes"the case of China's export restriction measures on raw materials"as a visual angle, takes the principle of sovereignty of natural resources and the principle of sustainable development as the theoretical support, makes a study of legal issues of China's export restriction measures on raw materials with the WTO rules on export restriction measures as the basis. Based on this idea ,the article is divided into the following five parts:The first part is the overview of export trade control measures. In this part, the author clears the concept and types of the trade control firstly ,draws a conclusion that WTO pays more attention to import trade control measures than export trade control measures; Then the author expounds on the concept and types of export trade control measures and points that the WTO also focuses more attention on export prompting measures than export restriction measures; Finally through expounding on"the case of China's export restrictions on raw materials", the author points that the legal issues of export restriction measures under the framework of WTO worth our attention and research.The second part is the theoretical basis for implementing export restriction measures of raw materials. In this part, the author provides us with theoretical support through discussing the principle of sovereignty of natural resources and the principle of sustainable development which are the logic starting point of the article. The third part is the relevant rules of export restriction measures under GATT1994. In this part, the author analyzes the general rules on export restriction measures including substantive rules and procedural rules under GATT1994 firstly and points out that the WTO rules prohibit export restrictions in principle, but export restriction measures can be used in accordance with the relevant exception rules; Then through interpreting the special rules under WTO on export quotas, export taxes and export license, the author points out that the specific rules of GATT1994 on quantitative restrictions regulation are more strict than export tax; At last, the author analyzes China's relevant acceptance on export restrictions under Protocol on the accession of the people's republic of China and Report of the working party on the accession of China, and emphasizes that the"WTO-plus"obligations makes it more difficult in demonstrating legitimacy of China's export restriction measures.The fourth part is the analysis for legal issues of"the case of China's export restriction measures on raw materials"under the framework of GATT1994. In this part, the author discusses the legal basis which can be quoted as China's export restriction measures on raw materials—GATT1994 article 20(g),analyzes the applicable problem of Protocol on the accession of the people's republic of China to GATT1994 article 20(g), and demonstrates that GATT1994 article 20(g) can be quoted by our country on export tax problems; Finally, the author analyzes how to prove the export restriction measures in conformity with GATT1994 article 20(g) ,and reveals the difficulty is how to prove that China has established equal internal and external protection mechanisms for raw materials.The fifth part is the advice of perfecting our country's export restriction measures on raw materials. According to the analysis of existing defects on export restriction measures, the author explains the legal advice from two dimensions. On one hand, we should perfect our country's export restriction measures under the framework of WTO, On the other hand, seeking relevant alternative measures of export restriction measures is a lasting solution to protect the raw material resources in our country.