Study On Legal Issues Of "The Third Party" In DSU

Under the background of economic globalization, the trade activitiesbetween the WTO members have developed much further, but the trade frictionsalso be more frequent. A dispute matters are no longer limited to the disputeparties, but would involve more parties who have the interest to the dispute. Forthe consideration of the costs of legal proceedings or litigation risks, manystakeholders do not want to sue to the DSB as the complaint, but as the "thirdparty" to participate in the dispute. By this way, they can avoid bearing the highcost of litigation and advocate their own trade interests. Practice has proved, the"third party" system has played an increasingly important role in the WTOdispute settlement practice. Since its accession to the WTO, China has alwaysactively participated in the WTO dispute settlement as the “third party” andachieved quite good results. Because the study on the "third party" system in ourcountry is still relatively small, the focus of this paper is to study the situation of China as the "third party" participate in the WTO dispute settlement, andpropose the strategy which china will take in future.This article constituted by the introduction and main body, the author willintroduce this article in four aspects.Firstly, the literature reviews of domestic and international academic studyon the “third party” system. In this section, the author combs the main ideas offoreign and domestic scholars on the "third party" system respectively, to clearthe academic status.Secondly, on the basis of describing the "third party" system’ basic theory,the author make the empirical analysis on China as the "third party" participatein the dispute settlement. In this section, the author firstly analysis the situationof key WTO members as the "third party" participate in the dispute settlementin macro perspective, then analysis the situation of China as the "third party"participate in the dispute settlement in microscopic perspective, including thecase name and case number, finally summarize the relevant characteristics. Thirdly, the author analysis the problems of the "third party" system inpractice, including the vagueness of the DSU provisions content which relevantto the “third party”, and the limitation of the "third party" rights. Then analysisthe specific problems in the consultation stage，the panel stage and the appealstage respectively, in order to put forward the author’s own proposals forreform.Finally, on the basis of studying the current situation, the author analysis thestrategy which China as the "third party" participate in the dispute settlementwill take. Nowadays, China takes a full participation way to participate in thedispute settlement as the "third party". In the beginning of China’s accession tothe WTO, this way is indeed a great benefit. But as the trade frictions whichChina faces become more frequent, for China, the opportunity to participate indispute settlement as the complainant and the Respondent will be more andmore, relatively, the opportunity as the "third party” will be reduced. Becausethe" third party "can not have the same actual benefits as the complaining party,and China has accumulated a certain amount of litigation experience. So I believe that, in the future, China do not have to be as in the past as the "thirdparty" to participate fully in almost all disputes, and should participate inselectively to reduce the burden on the litigation. In addition, when considerwhether to participate in the dispute settlement as the” third party”, Chinashould focus on two aspects: the size of the interests involved and the degree ofrisk. In the end, the author concludes the recommendations for China as the"third party" participate in the disputes settlement in future.