Analysis Of The Case Of China-Measures Related To The Exportation Of Various Raw Materials

The case of China-Measures Related to the Exportation of Various Raw Materials is thefirst case concerning export restrictions measures of raw materials since China became onemember of WTO. As a dispute which is about export restrictions, it is not common in WTO.The case has a very special status and great importance, because it not only involves three keymembers of WTO, the United States, the European Union and China, but also it’s the firstWTO dispute of the United States after President of the United States Obama came to power.In this case, the United States, the European Union and Mexico filed a complaint throughthe World Trade Organization and requested consultation with China on use of the exportrestrictions measures of certain raw materials. They considered that these measures were notcoincident with WTO regulations and the relevant commitments under China’s protocol ofaccession to the WTO. On July5,2011, the World Trade Organization released the PanelReport, which confirmed these measures did not agree with WTO regulations and the relevantcommitments under China’s protocol of accession to the WTO. On January30,2012, theAppellate Body Report maintained the core ruling of the Panel Report and rejected China’sappeal to preliminary ruling, whose reason for taking these measures is in order to protect theenvironmental or in short supply of resources. The setback which China suffered in this caseis likely to become a precedent. In the future, the developed countries, like the EU and the US,will challenge China’s export restrictions on other natural resources, the related legal issues ofthis case have attracted wide attentions and researches of scholars both at home and abroad.This paper is on the basis of the facts of this case, taking the Panel Report and theAppellate Body Report as object of this research, makes an in-depth analysis of trial andruling on the key dispute by the Panel and the Appellate Body, then discusses rationality ofthis ruling. Through reflecting china’s losing and learning the lessons from this case, thispaper summarizes the countermeasures on how to dealing with similar products tradesdisputes and protect domestic natural resources. The paper is going to explore the casethrough three steps, i.e. introducing the case, analyzing the case and gaining theenlightenment from the case. According to the above ideas, this paper will be structured in thefollowing three parts:Part One is review of the case. In the first place, it explores the background of the case,and then combs the trial process, in the last, sums up the main disputes of each part and the results of the Panel Report and the Appellate Body Report.Part Two is the analysis of trial and ruling on the key dispute. This part is the core of thepaper, and it is divided into three sections. The former two sections focus on discussing thetrial logic and ruling of the two key disputes made by the Panel and the Appellate Body, i.e.the right of invoking Article XX of the GATT1994and the use of Article XX(g) of the GATT1994. The last section is some thoughts of the above ruling. The author puts forward certainreasonable doubts on the ruling, and points out that the means of interpretation used by WTODispute Settlement Body is too mechanical, there are a few logic errors, and it did not clarifythe key issues.Part Three is about the enlightenment of countermeasures from the above analysis of thecase. Through reflecting china’s losing and learning the lessons from the case, this sectionsummarizes the countermeasures on how to dealing with similar products trades disputes andprotect domestic natural resources, including the following four aspects: at first, as an externalcause, due to the defeats of the WTO legal system of export restrictions, China shouldpromote the perfection of this legal system actively; Secondly, because there are someshortcomings of China’s export restrictions, China should face its own problems, and workhard on three points: speeding up the improvement of natural resources protection and itsmanagement system，promoting the domestic legislation to conform with the WTO rules andstrengthening the ability of understanding and using the WTO rules.