The Legal Problems Of The Rare Earths Dispute Between China And The United States, European, Japan

The United States,European Union(EU) and Japan requested WTO consultationswith China concerning Chinese export restrictions on rare earths and the metalstungsten and molybdenum on March13,2012. But they did not have consultations,sothe United States,EU and Japan applied for estabilishing panel on June30,2012. WTOdecided to accept the request of the United States,EU and Japan, the panel willinvestigate,considerate and adjudicate the rare earths export restrictions. The exportrestrictions at issue were export duties, export quotas, minimum export pricerestrictions and export licensing and so on. The litigation measures and litigationterms in this case are similar to the China Raw Materials case, it reflect nationalcompetition for resources. China ended in defeat in the China Raw Materials case, itinvolved the Protocol on the Accession of the People’s Republic of China (AccessionProtocol),China’s accession to the WTO Working Party Reprot and the application ofArticle20of GATT. And the ruling has overall denied the rights of China to invokethe GATT article20, considering the decision of the rare earths case and case in thefuture have the function of the guidance, it is necessary for us to study the case, learnfrom them, in order to effectively deal with rare earths dispute case.This article will mainly involved in the rare case of export duties and quotas,around the WTO dispute settlement mechanism explanation method to explain theprotocol and the GATT article20, the Chinese government should be argued, on the premise of direct interpretation method is preferred, with reference to the purpose ofthe WTO agreement and the interpretation of the principle method, citing the GATTarticle20as a collection of export duties justification. GATT article20of theapplicable conditions for detail, it concludes that the evidence plays an importantpart in the WTO dispute settlement mechanism, therefore the Chinese government inthe rare earths case should ready to enough evidence. Also briefly elaborated onsecurity exception clause, rare earths resources is a kind of strategic resources, willaffect a country’s national security, therefore, it can play a supplementary role.Finally, the export restrictions on China’s natural resources frequently accused byothers, why is domestic policy is far more important than export policy, to follow thepremise of the WTO rules, China establish a synchronous protection system at homeand abroad; Improve the resources protection of domestic legislation; Set up scarceresources security reserve system, to perfect our system of resources andenvironmental protection targets.