Application And Development Of The WTO Transparency Principle In Dispute Settlement

In the WTO legal system, the status of the principle of transparency has been equalwith the MFN principle and the principle of national treatment. From GATT to theWTO, the principle of transparency has got a great development. The provisions oftransparency has been scattered in the WTO agreement, in which the GATT Article Ⅹwas the core of transparency provisions.WTO law with respect to transparencyprovisions include publishing trade measures of general application, establishinginquiry points, establishing trade policy review mechanism and so on. The principle oftransparency has played an important role in promoting fair trade and preventing tradediscrimination.The principle of transparency was always cited by various cases in the practice ofthe WTO dispute settlement. The US–Underwear, the EC–Selected Customs Matters,Argentina–Hides and Leather were applied GATT Article Ⅹ provision. The principleof transparency was developed by these cases. EC–Selected Customs Mattersexpanded the scope of application of the principle of transparency to domestic customsadministrate system of WTO members. Legitimate expectations of traders have beenbrought into the scope of application of the principle of transparency. In short, the scopeof the principle of transparency was enlarged so that disputes could be settled morefairness.WTO dispute settlement mechanism as an authority of resolving international tradedispute should also apply the principle of transparency. In the process of the WTOdispute settlement mechanism applying the principle of transparency, the scope ofapplication of the principle of transparency is extremely limited, and only spending afew time on practicing the requirements of transparency principle. The transparencyissues of dispute settlement mechanism should be corrected from the following aspects:Firstly, the documents should be published more timely, so as to the outside gettinginformation more timely; secondly, the experts’ name should be put on the conclusion ofdispute settlement, so as to the outside supervising experts’ speech; finally, in order toensure the fairness of judgment, the dispute settlement mechanism should allow othernon-parties to the dispute, individuals and NGO to involve in it. Amicus curiaeparticipating in dispute settlement are a new development of the dispute settlementmechanism, and amicus curiae help increasing the transparency of the dispute settlement mechanism.As a member of the WTO, China has certainly influenced by the principle oftransparency. Before becoming a WTO member, there was a big problem on legislation,administrative and relieve approach. After becoming a WTO member, China has hardyundertook transparency obligations, and has taken a big progress. China still has manyissues on transparency, but the government is more open–minded to participate in theinternational community, so that the principle of transparency will still have a positiveimpact on China.