"WTO-plus Obligations" Under The Accession Of The People’s Republic Of China

As the result of accession negotiation,Protocols of Accession recorded Applicants’commitments.Applicants are obliged to undertake obligations exceeding the existing requirements of the WTO agreements,in addition to the general obligations as to comply with WTO rules of conduct.Such obligations are known as "WTO-plus"obligations.The accession of China to the World Trade Organization in December 2001 marked one of the most significant events in the history of the world trading system.The Protocol on the Accession of the People’s Republic of China which includes substantive WTO-plus obligations,once became a heated debated subject.China’s WTO-plus obligations became a new beginning,after which developing countries undertake WTO-plus obligations more often.Prior to the accession of China,very few WTO-plus obligations existed for the several WTO acceding members.China’s WTO-plus obligations has the deepest and strongest impact on the WTO legal system and China’s domestic econoruic and legal systems.So it is necessary to have a deeper understanding about China’s WTO-plus obligations.This thesis is divided into five parts,disregarding the introduction and the epilogue.The thesis proceeds as follows.Section Ⅰ:WTO-plus obligations under WTO regime.This section introduces some important issues and analytical framework for China’s WTO-plus obligations.Specifically,this part includes the definition of WTO-plus obligations,reasons for creation of WTO-Plus obligations and the manifestation of WTO-Plus obligations.Section Ⅱ:The contents of China’s WTO-plus obligations.As the core part,this section analyzes the contents of China’s WTO-plus obligations by means of comparing articles of Accession protocol and certain WTO agreements.Section Ⅲ:The particularity of China’s WTO-plus obligations—results by comparing China with Vietnam and Russia separately.The particularity of China’s WTO-plus obligations come after comparative analysis between China and two countries—Vietnam and Russia.Section Ⅳ:The implications of China’s WTO-plus obligations.This section includes The implications of China’s WTO-plus obligations for the WTO legal system and China’s domestic economic and legal systems.The implications for the WTO legal system is on the basis of key benefits of China’s accession.The implications for China’s domestic economic and legal systems is on the basis of analysis results of Section II and Section Ⅲ.Section Ⅴ:Postscript:High standards of World Trade Rules and China’s countermeasures.This section discusses the future trend of world trade rules and come up with the opinion that the requirements of world trade rules will become more stringent.As the biggest Emerging Economy,China should be committed to make world trade rules more beneficial to developing countries.