A Legal Investigation Of China’s Strategy Against SPS Measures From United States-Certain Measures Affecting Imports Of Poultry From China

With the promotion of international trade liberalization process, problems derived from implementation of the animal and plant inspection and quarantine system have become increasingly prominent in recent years. Some countries, especially some developed countries often make use of the animal and plant inspection and quarantine system to establish non-tariff barriers to hinder the enter port of agricultural products to the domestic market from developing countries. Compared to the traditional tariff barriers, the non-tariff barriers are often more subtle. Therefore, during the Uruguay Round negotiations, many WTO members proposed the development of normative regulations for the animal and plant inspection and quarantine measures. The "Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures Agreement" is an important international multilateral agreement formed during the negotiations in Uruguay Round. It makes strict and specific requirements on the implementation of animal and plant inspection and quarantine measures in international trade. It is also a product of the implementation of WTO principles into the work of the animal and plant inspection and quarantine.By clarifying the factors which should be considered in implementation of a SPS measure and emphasizing the principle that all of the animal and plant health protection measures should be based on accurate and objective data made on the basis of the assessment, the "SPS Agreement" is to reduce the damage on international trade caused by the situation which some governments abuse their trade sovereignty and randomly implement animal and plant inspection and quarantine measures. But since the dispute of "EC Measures Concerning Meat and Meat Products" occurred, many disputes relating to SPS measures of food safety have erupted. The dispute of "United States-Certain Measures Affecting Imports of Poultry from China", derived from the "Omnibus Appropriations Act,2009" passed by the US congress, was the first case that China successfully challenged American congressional legislation on SPS measures since China’s accession to the WTO.This paper takes the combination of case analysis, empirical analysis and normative analysis to conduct feasibility studies. It studies the appealing opinions of China, the defending views of US and the judgment of the panel in the dispute of DS392, meanwhile to integrate the studying on the legislative status and management system of our SPS system, in order to investigate strategies for China to counter the SPS barriers. The paper is divided into five parts. The first part is a brief overview of the international background and the process of the dispute DS392. The second part is an outline of the dispute. The key points of DS392are listed in this part. The third part mainly focuses on analyzing the key points relating to SPS Agreement in this dispute, which involves the problems of identification of a SPS measure, risk assessment and its scientific and objective basis, mutual recognition of equivalent, elements of trade discrimination and the judgment of an alternative SPS measure. Part four investigates the problems in China’s respondent under WTO dispute settlement mechanism in this dispute and point out the defects in our strategies of countering SPS measures. Then through researching on our current legislative system and the practice status of "SPS Agreement", it points out three defects in China’s legislation. Through analyzing and investigating the problems existing in our legislation and SPS practicing, part four emphasizes the importance of precaution work. Through analyzing on DS392, part five mainly provides some advices for China to counter SPS barriers. On the one hand China should continue fulfilling the commitment of opening Chinese market to the world and strengthen the trade cooperation with other countries. On the other hand China should strengthen the construction of SPS legislative system and perfect the administrative system while make good use of "SPS Agreement" to take precaution measures rationally against SPS barriers in the future.