The Research On The Interpretation Of The Protocol On The Accession Of The People’s Republic Of China

The Protocol on the Accession of the People’s Republic of China (hereafter the China Protocol or the Protocol) is the main legal instrument that admitting China into the WTO. Unlike any other WTO protocol of accession, the China Protocol contains a large number of special provisions, these provisions somehow revised WTO rules when applied to China. Because of the enforceability of the Protocol under the Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes (hereafter the DSU),interpreting its provisions becomes unavoidable. According to Article3.2of the DSU, WTO agreements should be clarified in accordance with customary rules of interpretation of public international law. In the practice, treaty interpretation by the dispute settlement body of the WTO is governed by the interpretive principles set out in Articles31and32(especially Articles31) of Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties Rules (the VCLT). The obligations between the Protocol and the WTO agreements have much inconsistency, and the textual manner of Article31of the VCLT is may not adapted to sovle this problem. Moreover, the imperfect formulation of the Protocol makes a textual approach of interpretation rather difficult to be adopted. A way for the interpreter to interpret the provisions of the Protocol appropriately is to realize the unique quality of the Protocol and adopt a flexible manner when applying Article31and32of the VCLT, making the supplementary means of interpretation more important.