Research On The Legal Issues Of The RMB Exchange Rate From The Angle Of International Law

Exchange Rate is not only a purely financial problem, it involves country’spolitic, economy and trade, and even the fields of society, it is an extremely sensitiveand complex problem, because of the unbalanced global trade can’t be solved in ashort time easily, therefore, the friction on the issue of RMB exchange ratewill beexisting in a long term, the RMB exchange rate will accompany the whole process ofChina’s development of economy and constitute the problem of disputes betweenChinese and western, so it is an important legal issue our country facing currently.Since2002, the issue of RMB exchange rate has become one of the hot spot of theinternational community, in spite of the RMB exchange rate system reform sinceJuly,2005—"on the basis of market supply and demand, reference to a basket ofcurrencies, managed floating exchange rate system" and appreciating RMB rate madethe dispute eased temporarily. But as the global financial crisis triggered by theU.Ssubprime mortgage crisis, western countries’ accusing of RMB exchange rate rapidlyheat up. On the legal level western countries mainly around two main linesabout theRMB exchange rate: one is accused of the Chinese government made anunderestimated exchange rate artificially and manipulated foreign exchange market,breach of the IMF article4of avoiding “currency manipulation” under theinternational law obligations; another is blamedto an undervalued RMB is equal toprovide subsidy for Chinese exported product, breach of the obligations related to thecountervailing agreement under WTO international law.Under the strong pressure of the appreciation of the RMB exchange rate bywestern countries, the RMB rate experienced fixed exchange rate system、dualexchange rate system、single and managed floating exchange rate system、a basket ofmanaged floating exchange rate system, and constantly introduced new exchange rate reform measures for the RMB exchange rate formation mechanism step by steptowards a more market-oriented and liberalization. Obviously, the floating exchangerate system is more advanced than the fixed exchange rate system in a way, but itneeds to have a perfect domestic economic system and a mature foreign exchangemarket as themore strict and higher standardconditions of implementing. The RMBagainst the dollar has kept between8.28and8.4for a long time since eliminated dualexchange rate system in the year of1994, and continued rising after the reform of theRMB exchange rate since the year of2005, until the end of the year of2013, theRMB exchange rate against the dollar has appreciated35%cumulatively, but RMBstill has long-term appreciation pressure.This paper aims at the main chargingof western countries, with the rules of theInternational Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Trade Organization as the mainlines, from the background and the present situation of the RMB exchange ratedispute, the evolution of the international currency system and RMB exchange ratesystem and the development of the western countries in recent years on charges ofRMB exchange rate of international law lead to the RMB exchange rate disputeproblems, through expounding the national monetary sovereignty and its limitationsof the RMB exchange rate, IMF and WTO ascription problem of the jurisdiction ofthe dispute, the RMB exchange rate legal issues under the framework of IMF andWTO, the report of cognizance and negotiationof the U.S Treasury and IMF, arrive ata conclusion that the RMB exchange rate arrangement does not violate relevantinternational obligations, provide sufficient legal basis for the legitimacy of the RMBexchange rate, explore more marketization and liberalization of the RMB exchangerate mechanism, and come up with feasibility suggestions for the RMB exchange ratesystem.