Analysis Of National Treatment Of Digital Products Under GATs

The principle of national treatment is one of the basic principles and values of the WTO legal system,which plays a fundamental role in the operation and effectiveness of the WTO legal system.In the field of trade in goods,tariffs are the main means of regulating the level of trade,while the field of service trade mainly relies on national treatment to regulate the public power of government management and to ensure equal opportunities for competition in the market.Based on the huge differences in the level of liberalization within the framework of GATT and GATS,how digital products can be applied to the national treatment principle within the framework of the WTO,the primary problem is the classification.It is then possible to discuss the general problems encountered in national treatment and the special issues that apply to digital products.Except for the first chapter,this paper is divided into six chapters,including:The chapter 2: The meaning and classification of digital product.This chapter analyzes the development of e-commerce,defines the scope and definition of digital products.Analyzes the different interests of the EU and the United States on the classification of digital products,and provide a theoretical basis for that digital products should be included in the GATS.The chapter 3: How to identify "Similar Service" in National Treatment of Digital Products.How to identify similar services is the core issue of national treatment,for digital products,we mainly discuss the two parts: 1.The impact of four kinds of service delivery,2.The impact of technical neutrality.And further demonstrate that digital products can be attributed to the audiovisual services department based on the report of the expert group.The chapter 4: How to identify the "no less than treatment" in national treatment of digital products.Discussed the characteristics of controversial measures and how to define“changing conditions of competition” thus creating a discriminatory treatment of foreign services and their providers.In addition,although people rarely pay attention to the theory of “foreign exclusion",it may have special effect in the field of digital products.The chapter 5: How to quote an exception clause.In some cases,WTO members have the right to evade the obligation of national treatment,and the closest exceptions to digitalproducts are "public moral exceptions" and "cultural exceptions".This article analyzes the contents of the two exceptions and make some suggestions.The chapter 6: The enlightenment to China.Through the analysis of our legislation,combined with the lessons learned in the case,the last chapter put forward the following countermeasures: 1.To amend the domestic legislation to improve the legislative technology;2.Attention to the burden of proof,to enhance the legal level of business;3 to find other ways to protect the digital industry.