Study On ECFA Dispute Settlement Mechanism

In order to promote the further liberalization in some fields, such as trade in goods,service trade and investment, it is necessary to set up platform for economicco-operation between the Taiwan and mainland. Both sides signed the EconomicCooperation Framework Agreement, ECFA for short. The dispute settlementmechanism is the gatekeepers of the Regional Trade Agreement. The perfect andpractical dispute settlement mechanism can ensure the Regional Trade Agreement’seffective operation. The Article10and11in the ECFA is the clauses about how tobuild up the dispute settlement mechanism. Both sides want to find a solution when itoccurs economic and trade frictions during the implementation of the ECFA. Thesubsequent agenda of the ECFA would be held up every half year. However，settingup an ECFA Dispute Settlement is an important agenda. The Chinese Mainland andTaiwan made an momentous decision，which is signing an ECFA Dispute SettlementMechanism Agreement in a suitable time in2013December regular meeting. In fact，it is very significant for ECFA implementing to put up a reasonable DisputeSettlement Mechanism.This article composes of three parts. In the first part，it is the introduction about thedomestic and foreign background, content, current situation of implementation andcharacteristics of the ECFA’s production. The International Factors of the ECFA’sproduction includes that the multilateral trade’s situation is unstable, Countries keento develop regional economic and trade cooperation, and it is good for China toimprove international economic status. The internal factors are economic and tradedevelopment strategy, economic development and economic and trade close degree.ECFA is rich in content, such as trade in goods, service trade, investment, disputesettlement mechanism, intellectual property protections and Electronic commerce.The characteristics of EFCA is the main discussion. Compared the nature and featuresof EFCA with CEPA in order to explain that ECFA conform to the WTO regulationand it is the special form of the China RTA practice.In the second part, it is the discussion about the dispute settlement mechanism of thecurrently important economic and trade agreements and of regional trade agreementssigned by Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Macao. Each dispute settlementmechanism has different characteristics. Through the analysis of the existing problemof dispute settlement mechanism and merits, we would obtain the correspondingenlightenment perspective in the mode of operation, the specific methods, theestablishment of institutions, jurisdiction, the specific procedures.In the third part, it is the major component of this article about how to structure theEFCA’s dispute settlement mechanism. The main content of this part includes theoperation mode and specific methods of ECFA dispute settlement mechanism, thesetting up and domination and the particular running procedure. According to thecurrent economic and trade environment, the typical dispute settlement mechanismrepresentatives and the characteristics of ECFA, the specific way of the dispute settlement mechanism should be negotiation, adjustment and arbitration, and theoperation mode of it should be quasi-judicial pattern.