Research On WTO's "Single Commitment" Decision Rules

The WTO "single undertaking" decision-making rule is an important part of WTO negotiation.Its significance lies in improving the inefficiency of negotiations in GATT period,creating a fairer negotiation environment for WTO members,and thus ensuring the integrity of multilateral trading system.However,the reality is far from the original intention.In the recent years,the WTO "single undertaking" decision-making rule has been blamed as one of the reasons hindering the progress of WTO negotiations,especially the eight-year doha round.Apart from the fact that the relevant provisions of the WTO "single undertaking"decision-making rule are too vague and slow to update,the most fundamental problem is that its legal basis violates the WTO's fair value.In order to break the deadlock,a series of reform paths have appeared in the practice of WTO negotiations.However,these reform paths still have some defects in fairness or legality.This dissertation starts with the WTO "single undertaking" decision-making rule,through the analysis of its theoretical and practical contradictions and the comparison of the original reform paths,it will discuss the possibility of introducing "soft law" into the reform of the WTO "single undertaking" decision-making rule and put forward corresponding reform suggestions.In addition to the introduction and conclusion,this article is divided into four chapters.The first chapter mainly introduces the basic overview of the WTO "single undertaking"decision making-rule.First of all,it explains the specific meaning of the WTO "single undertaking" decision-making rule in this article and briefly introduces its historical development.The WTO "single undertaking" decision making-rule refers to "before all agreements are reached,no single agreement can be reached in the WTO negotiations".It can also be expressed as "a single package",which is not distinguished from "a single undertaking" in this paper.Secondly,it clearly defines the nature of the WTO "single undertaking" decision-making rule.The WTO "single undertaking" decision making-rule an neither be viewed as a negotiation tool nor as a negotiation principle simply,but should be defined as a decision-making rule.The second chapter analyzes the current three dilemmas of the WTO "single undertaking" decision-making rule,including the inadequate application of the decision-making rule caused by the difficulty of implementation,a "power-oriented" trend on the used of the decision-making rule and the inefficiency.Then the article lists the twotheoretical disputes arising from the practical dilemmas.One is whether the WTO "single undertaking" decision-making rule is rule-based or power-based,the other is whether the principle of reciprocity or special and differential treatment is followed by the decision-making rule.Based on the analysis of the above controversy,the author draws conclusions: the legal basis "Contract theory" and "Pareto optimum" violates WTO's fair values leading to "power orientation" in the operation of the WTO "single undertaking"decision-making rule;secondly,the vague provisions on the principle of special and differential treatment further exacerbates the unfairness of WTO's "single commitment" decision rules;finally,The slow update speed of the decision-making rule has led to its inefficient operation.The third chapter is the countermeasure part of this article.This chapter first compares and analyzes the three original reform paths of the WTO "single undertaking"decision-making rule and concludes that the original reform paths are less fair,less legal,and potentially destructive to the multilateral trading system.Second,This paper proposes a new reform path — "soft law" that can make up for these shortcomings.Based on a brief introduction to its theoretical basis,it discusses the general idea of ??reforming the WTO"single undertaking" decision-making rule with "soft law",that is,on the basis of adhering to the hard law as the main regulatory method,it will give full play to the exemplary and complementary role of the soft law.Finally,according to the specific practice of the WTO,the article discusses three specific methods of transforming the WTO's "single undertaking"decision-making rule under the "soft law" path: providing principled guidance documents for the WTO "single undertaking" decision-making rule,formulating an explanation of how the decision-making rule is applied and detailing specific issues in WTO negotiations.The fourth chapter explores the enlightenment that the "soft law" reform of the WTO"single undertaking" decision-making rule brings to China.This section takes China 's "One Belt One Road" construction as an example and introduces the current status of China's gradual application of soft law in participation in international governance.Secondly,it analyzes the shortcomings in the process of soft law governance in China 's "One Belt One Road" construction,including inbalances between soft and hard law governance,inadequate application of soft law in the signing of bilateral investment treaties and the establishment of regional rules,etc.Finally,it combines the use of "soft law" in reforming the WTO "single undertaking" decision-making rule to explore how China use soft law in the construction of the "Belt and Road initiative".There are three relevant suggestions: establishing "soft / hardlaw mixed regulations",using soft law to upgrade existing bilateral investment treaties and strengthening the construction of regional rules.