The Legal Issue Of Chinese Natural Resources Export Control

Under the background of the continuous development of economic globalization,disputes among countries in the world on restricting the trade in natural resources have gradually increased.The relevant traders hold their opinions on the question of whether or not the measures to restrict the trade in natural resources are reasonable.The essence of the dispute is the various countries.Competing for conflicts of interest that could exhaust natural resources.Among them,China,as a major natural resource exporter,has received particular attention.In the "Rare Earth Case",the WTO expert group ruled on March 26,2014,dismissing the Chinese request,and China continued to appeal.Subsequently,the WTO formally issued the report of China's "Rare Earth Case" Appellate Body.In this report,the Appellate Body held that the expert group's export tariffs and export quota measures on China's products involved in the case were inconsistent with the relevant WTO rules and the commitment of China's accession to the WTO.The verdict was correct and China's request was rejected.In the case of the raw material that had ended before,China also ended in losing the case.What was the reason for losing the lawsuit?What lessons did the rare earth case leave us?Or,how can China manage to avoid the recurrence of similar losing cases while managing the export of natural resources in the future?This is a realistic issue that needs to be solved in front of our government.This article is trying to analyze the rare earth case,taking the relevant experience of developed countries in Europe and America as a lesson,summarizing the defects and deficiencies of China's current natural resource export control legal system,and trying to propose corresponding improvement measures.The paper is divided into five parts.The first part is an explanation of China's natural resource export control.China's natural resources have experienced a large number of exports in exchange for foreign exchange to strictly control exports and ensure the transformation of resource reserves.The specific measures China adopts for the implementation of export controls on natural resources include the collection of export taxes,the issuance of export licenses,the implementation of export price limits and the setting of minimum export price limits.From the three perspectives of serving the long-term sustainable development of the country's economy,observing the principle of protecting the environment,and opposing the protection of trade in other countries,we must talk about why we should carry out export control.The second part takes the "rare earth case" as an entry point,introduces the main case of the "rare earth case",and elaborates on the China's Accession Protocol and Article 20 of GATT 1994.Since the case involved the nature of the "Accession Protocol to the WTO," and China mainly invoked Article 20(b)and(g)of GATT 1994 as a defense,it analyzed the relationship between the "WTO Accession Protocol" and the WTO Agreement,GATT 20 Article b,g The application rules of the paragraph and the preface to arrive at the reasons why China cannot use the 20th article of the GATT as a defense in this case.Rethinking the "Rare Earth Case" losing the lawsuit revealed that China's research and application of WTO rules still have defects.The third chapter clarifies the current situation and existing problems of China`s natural resources export control legal system.At present,China's natural resource export control law system includes domestic legislation such as foreign trade law,customs law,and criminal law,as well as the accession protocol signed by China when it entered the WTO.At the same time,according to the contents of the first three chapters,it is pointed out that China's natural resource export control has three major problems:the purpose of export control is not clear,the law is imperfect,and the export control system does not meet the WTO rules.The fourth part introduced the legal system concerning the export control of natural resources in the United States and the European Union and its implications for China.Through the introduction of the United States and Europe concerning the export control of natural resources,it pointed out that the United States and Europe have advanced aspects in export control,and our country can Establish and improve the legislative basis,streamline the organization,eliminate the duplication of functions of the regulatory agencies,achieve information disclosure,and enhance the transparency of export controls.The fifth part explains how to improve China's legal system of natural resource export control.Specifically,the draft of the Export Control Law is used as an example to improve the relevant legislation;the society clearly defines the purpose of environmental protection in the export policy of natural resources;the government strengthens supervision to limit the exploitation of domestic resources;and government-led enterprises are the main force to increase the bargaining power of resource exports.