A Study On United States Tariff Law Section337

Section337is short for United States Tariff Law of1930. Section337is used to restrict the unfair competition acts of importers at the very start of it being enacted, but with the application of Section337, it has become a special act protecting intellectual property. Section337has also become a powerful weapon for American companies to beat their oversea competitors. In recent years, China has always been the major target of Section337. In the development progress of Section337, the consistent between it and WTO rules has always been the focus of arguments. There are two totally different standpoints:some scholars insist Section337is consistent with WTO rules, but other scholars are against of that point and insist Section337violates The principle of national treatment.There are four parts except the Introduction and Conclusion:The introduction is a short description of the role Section337plays in protecting American intellectual property and its widespread application. And put forward that the analysis of the legality of Section337is meaningful.The first part is mainly about the development progress of Section337and its features. Besides, the important role Section337plays in protecting intellectual property and our country being a major victim of this section both make the analysis of its relation with WTO rules necessary.The second part elaborates the relation between Section337and GATT Article3.4and GATT Article20by analyzing two typical and historical cases. In these two cases, the panel put forward several opinions that Section337is not consistent with the WTO rules. After that, America modified Section337through the Uruguay Round Agreements Act (URAA), which enables Section337consistent with WTO rules literally. But, the new Section337still provide imported goods a worse condition than American goods.The third part is mainly about the relation between Section337and The TRIPs Agreement. The content of TRIPs Agreement Article41is so flexible that it is hard to decide whether Section337is consistent with it. And the relation of Section337with the other Articles such as Article3,50,51,52is easily to be defined that they are totally consistent. But this conclusion is just literal and we need to analyze from other historical angles such as how this section originates and so on.The forth part summarizes the countermeasures against Section337for our government and companies. The negative attitude is one of the most adverse factors when companies are involved into Section337cases. Although there are some objective reasons for this phenomenon, such as the high cost to engage in a Section337lawsuit and so on, but it is more about our companies themselves. Our companies generally have no full understanding of Section337which results in our companies totally in a loss when it comes to Section337lawsuit. So our government shall hammer at optimizing industrial association which will facilitate our company to win the Section337lawsuit.