Study On Application Of TBT And SPS Clauses Of Free Trade Agreements In Fish Trade

The process of multilateral trade negotiations under the framework of the World Trade Organization(WTO)is often very long and it is difficult to reach a consensus.Since the 1990 s,many countries have begun to actively explore regional economic cooperation,and the number of regional trade agreements(RTAs)has increased rapidly.China not only actively integrates into the multilateral trading system,but also actively negotiates free trade agreements(FTAs)with all parties.Aquatic products are one of the primary agricultural products with the highest degree of internationalization.China is the largest exporter of aquatic products and the third largest importer,and imports and exports are greatly affected by the terms of the FTA.With the continuous reduction of import tariffs on aquatic products close to zero,nontariff measures often become an important factor hindering the cross-border circulation of aquatic products.Among them,technical barriers to trade(TBT)and sanitary and phytosanitary measures(SPS)are considered to be the most important measures to hinder the circulation of aquatic products.How to achieve more efficient and transparent TBT and SPS terms has become an important issue to promote the circulation of aquatic products.On the one hand,with the increasing attention to the quality and safety of aquatic products,many countries have stricter quality requirements for aquatic products and higher standardization requirements;on the other hand,it is the consideration of trade efficiency and fairness.Compared with the non-discriminatory policies under the WTO framework,bilateral and multilateral free trade agreements have a higher degree of freedom in the formulation of rules.More appropriate terms can be better negotiated according to the different economic development level,technical level and institutional level of each country.In view of this,on the basis of sorting out China’s import and export aquatic products trade and the signed free trade agreements,this paper analyzes the safety issues of aquatic products in trade,the obstruction of China ’s export of aquatic products and the import of aquatic products from other countries to China under TBT and SPS.Then it horizontally compares and analyzes the TBT and SPS clauses related to aquatic product trade in the free trade agreements signed by China,and analyzes the effect of different TBT and SPS clauses on aquatic product trade.Put forward countermeasures and suggestions from the government’s legislation and implementation level and how to improve the TBT and SPS clauses in the free trade agreement.The government level includes: improving the laws,regulations and standards related to the quality and safety of aquatic products,strictly supervising the export and import of aquatic products,promoting technological progress,paying attention to personnel training,establish a guiding website for the import and export of aquatic products,and strengthen exchanges and cooperation with other countries.Suggestions for optimizing TBT and SPS clauses include: including provisions on mutual recognition of conformity assessment procedures results in the clauses,enhancing the detail of transparency clauses,adding certain restrictions to import inspection clauses and writing more enforceable cooperation provisions,listing key areas in the cooperation clauses according to the conditions of the parties,and incorporating some clauses in the WTO TBT/SPS agreement after modification.By giving full play to government functions,it can improve the compliance of exported aquatic products,strengthen and optimize the supervision of imported aquatic products,and improve the safety and flow efficiency of aquatic products.By building better TBT/SPS terms,China will be able to strengthen cooperation with other countries or regions in aquatic product trade through free trade agreements,which can not only help ensure the safety of imported and exported aquatic products,but also minimize potential trade barriers.