Analysis And Applicability Of The Important Clauses Of Article2of The TBT Agreement

As one of the non-tariff barriers, technical barriers to trade plays a crucial role ininternational trade. Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (hereinafter referred toas TBT Agreement) rules on technical barriers to trade to make sure that the technicalregulations, standards and conformity assessment procedures won’t impose anyunnecessary obstacles on trade. But it also acknowledges the countries the authority toenact technical regulations, standards and conformity assessment procedures theythink appropriate and necessary to protect legitimate objectives. This may lead to theconflict and a problem of balancing the two sides. Article2of the TBT Agreementrules on the technical regulations and the important clauses, namely the second andfourth clauses of this article refers to the protection of legitimate objectives andsafeguard of the freedom of international trade. Understanding and master of the twoclauses is helpful for China to cope with technical regulations of other countries andestablish our own system of technical regulations to protect the legitimate objectivesof the country.This article are divided into four chapters. The first chapter is an introduction tothe important clauses. This chapter starts by giving a brief introduction to the TBTAgreement and then goes to elaborate the meaning, content, status and function of theimportant clauses of article2. Chapter2is an analysis of the important clauses. It mainly analyses veryelements of clause2and clause4base on the understanding and analysis offoreign scholars and brings up opinions on the two clauses.Chapter3analyses the application of the two important clauses in cases. Itstudies the case summary and the reasoning of the panel and the appellate body of thetuna case between the US and Mexico, the American clove cigarettes case and theSardines case and provide an idea of how these important clauses are applied inpractice.Chapter4provides a suggestion to the improvement of relevant legislation inChina according to the important classes in article2. This chapter startsby pointing out the success as well as defects of our legislation during the butting withthe important articles. And then goes to testify the feasibility and necessity of theimprovement of relevant legislation. The last part of this chapter brings up solutionsfor the existed problem, tailored to the situations in China.