The Legal Application Of Green Trade Barrier Certification Under GATT1994 Aritcle20

Green trade barrier is a series of laws,regulations and corresponding measures related to import and export trade restriction in order to protect the health and safety of human,animal and plant and ecological environment.In the 1960 s,mankind's living environment was facing a growing threat with the rapid development of industrialization.In 1972,the United Nations held its first conference on the human environment,which adopted the landmark Declaration on the Human Environment.Against the backdrop,green trade barriers have emerged and they can meet the requirements of environment and health by direct or indirect means.Despite the benefits to human society,green trade barrier is bound to have some kinds of discription and limitation due to its character as trade barrier and it makes green trade barrier a diffrence with WTO principal of trade freedom.So WTO takes a cautious approach to it: while taking GATT1994 Article 20 as the legal basis for the legality of green trade barriers,WTO also limits the purpose of green trade barrier by a series of pacts such as TBT and SPS.In addition,DSP keep caution to certify green trade barrier by its large legal practice.It should be said that the WTO seeks to find a balance between green trade and freedom of trade,while not denying the positive effects of green trade barriers on global ecology by maintaining its consistent principle of trade freedom through a series of means.It should be said that the WTO seeks to strike a balance between green trade and freedom of trade by maintaining its principle of trade freedom by a number of means,without denying the positive effects of green trade barriers on theglobal ecosystem.But in practice,because of the huge differences in economic development between developing and developed countries,the good intentions of the WTO tend to backfire: The developed countries occupy considerable advantages of economic foundation and science and technology,and often impose heavy tariffs on the products of developing countries or impose additional legal obligations such as certification and disinfection measures on them on the pretext that their products "do not meet domestic standards for health safety and ecological environment",thus greatly impairing the legitimate rights and interests of developing countries in international trade;At the same time,because of the relatively backward production level of developing countries,environmental awareness and relatively inadequate environmental legislation,some countries have even sacrificed their own environmental development economy and become a part of “dump” of developed countries.At this point,green trade barriers have become a means for developed countries to expand market competition and limit the market share of developing countries,contrary to their original intention,even further infringement of WTO trade freedom and national treatment principles.Although there is a reasonable purpose and the WTO gives it a cautious attitude,in practice,the "double standard" of green trade barriers is obvious with both hidden and legitimacy interaction,and therefore easy to divide.In the case of DSB's dispute over green trade barriers,the two sides often focus on Article 20 of GATT 1994.This means that it is very important to clarify the inherent logic of Article 20 of GATT1994,to follow the legal principles of the GATT1994 by applying this provision to determine the legality of the Green Trade Barrier and to determine the meaning of the general environmental exception clause.Taking the legality of green trade barriers as the starting point and the legal basis for their legitimacy as the starting point,this paper expounds the relationship between green trade barriers and Article 20 of GATT 1994,and probes into WTO's determination of green trade barriers in conjunction with the Agreement on the Implementation of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures,the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade,and the Resolution on Environment and Trade.Thus,it is notscientific and rigorous to argue that green trade barriers should be regarded as technical barriers that must be eliminated only from the standpoint of developing countries.Based on this premise,this paper will take DSB's case over the past 40 years as the starting point,select the most representative case,follow the expert group's legal adherence to the Green Trade Barriers and apply the reasoning logic of Article 20 of GATT 1994.And combined with the specific content of Article 20 of GATT 1994,the general attitude of WTO to the dispute over green trade barriers and the logic of the reasoning behind the decision follow.Finally,in the light of the China rare earths case,we will consider how China,as the largest developing country in the world,should apply the rules of the WTO system to construct green trade barriers so as to protect its scarce resources and ecological environment effectively,and how to fight back against the unreasonable green trade barriers of developed countries to China,thus maintaining its international trade benefits.