On The Status Of The Consumer’s Right To Know In WTO Rules

The wave of protecting the consumer’s right to know springs up in the international community, especially in the field of international food trade. Food labeling is the most direct way to illustrate the consumer’s right to know, so some countries, many non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and individual consumers around the world support a stand-alone consumer’s right to know to evidence their domestic food labeling rules, in order to protect consumer’s right to know fundamentally. However, because different countries have different formulating background and standards, not all countries have admitted the independent status of the consumer’s right to know in the food label rules. So in the background of economic globalization, government-mandated food labeling is likely to be squarely addressed by a WTO panel in the near future. This Article, combined with the WTO rules and related practice, has chosen the issue of food labeling to contextualize the problem, that is, whether regulations based on a consumer’s right to know would be permissible under WTO rules. And finally find an effective solution for the WTO dispute settlement body (DSB) to help them settle food labeling disputes reasonably.Full text consists of seven parts:The preface introduces the background and significance of the subject of this article.The first part of the text analyses the necessity of protecting the consumer’s right to know. Along with the development of the international community, consumers claim their right to know more strongly, so it is more necessary to protect the consumer’s right to know at the international level.The second part explains the effects of food labels on the consumer’s right to know. Have been affected by that tendency, most countries in the world established their food labeling systems for protecting the consumer’s right to know and satisfying their people. From the angle of mandatory extent, food labels can be divided into voluntary food labels and mandatory food labels. These two kinds of label systems on the role of the consumer’s right to know are not the same. The various tag system illustrates different countries have different attitudes toward the position of the consumer’s right to know, which is closely related to the analysis below. Therefore, this article then analyses the different effects of these two systems on consumer’s right to know.The third part separately analyses the status of the consumer’s right to know in the European Union and the United States’food label rules. It is very obvious that the attitudes toward the position of the consumer’s right to know in the food label rules between the European Union and United States’are different. This kind of typical opposition led to much inconsistency between their food label rules. Considering what kind of attitude is more reasonable is important for WTO, while facing this kind dispute. So it is the premise to understand WTO food label rules to analyze the position of the consumer’s right to know in their food label rulesThe forth part is the main part of this article. Based on the analysis of the above, this part discusses the position of the consumer’s right to know in WTO food label rules. Thus, we know that WTO does not pay enough attention on the consumer’s right to know, which is inconsistent with the important influence of it.The fifth part puts forward some suggestions for WTO aiming at its deficiency in protecting the consumer’s right to know, and which also can be used for reference for China to improve its protecting system. Ignorance of the consumers demand for right to know will make the defeated party implement the reports of the panel or the appellate body unwillingly. So it is necessary to enhance the status of the consumer’s right to know in WTO food label rules. At the same time, as the largest developing country in WTO, if China responds to these suggestions, there is no doubt that it will have an important influence for the protection of the consumer’s right to know.The conclusion of this article summarizes the main point and comes to a conclusion that paying attention on the consumer’s right to know will make the economy develop more humanly.