A Study of Relative Regulation and Dispute Settlement of Technical Barriers to Trade Agreement - A Case Study of Free Trade Agreement of Mainland China

• Main Authors: Yu Min Lee, 李育明
• Other Authors: 張自強
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 102
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/f3395x

碩士 === 南台科技大學 === 財經法律研究所 === 101 === “Technical Barriers to Trade” means mandatory or non-mandatory technical measures, such as technical standards and regulations, procedures for assessment of conformity, packaging, marking and labeling requirements, quarantine of products, inspection systems, barriers to green techniques, and barriers to information techniques, taken by a country in international trade to ensure the quality of products for protection of national security, human health or safety, animal or plant life or health, of the environment, or for the prevention of deceptive practices. These measures would become barriers to free entrance of commodities from other countries into the market of the country. After years of endeavor under the WTO framework, Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (hereinafter referred to as “TBT Agreement”) was signed at Marrakesh in 1994 and went into effective on Jan. 1, 1995. People’s Republic of China is the second largest economic entity, and both sides of Taiwan Strait have signed Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) in June of 2010. Furthermore, People’s Republic of China signed Free Trade Agreement with New Zealand, Chile, Singapore, Peru, Pakistan, and Costa Rica from 2005 through 2010 (hereinafter referred to as “Six Agreements between Mainland China and Singapore and Other Countries”), in which regulations regarding technical barriers to trade and dispute settlement mechanisms have been established. This article analyzes the regulations regarding technical barriers to trade and dispute settlement mechanisms in the Free Trade Agreements signed by People’s Republic of China for the purposes of providing a reference for any relevant agreements to be signed by both sides of Taiwan Strait and for relevant rules in any ECFA or FTA to be signed by our government with other countries in the future. This article includes seven chapters. Chapter 1 is the introduction. Chapter 2 is Summary of TBT Agreement introducing the definition, framework, and measure types of TBT Agreement. Chapter 3 entitled “Application, Basic Principles, Procedures for Assessment of Conformity, and Mutual Recognition of TBT Agreement” describes regulations related to the application, non-discrimination, unnecessary barriers to trade, harmonicity, transparency, equality, necessity, and mutual recognition of TBT Agreement (making reference to the practice in Japan). Chapter 4 entitled “Application, Basic Principles, Procedures for Assessment of Conformity, and Mutual Recognition of FTAs Signed by People’s Republic of China” collects and organizes the regulations related to the application, basic principles, procedures for assessment of conformity, and mutual recognition of FTAs signed by People’s Republic of China. Chapter 5 entitled “Comparison between TBT Agreement and FTAs signed by People’s Republic of China” compares TBT Agreement with FTAs signed by People’s Republic of China. Chapter 6 entitled “Dispute Settlement” discusses settlement of disputes in technical barriers to trade, including negotiation, mediation, conciliation, intercession, establishment of an arbitration court, members of the arbitration court, duty of the arbitration court, procedures of the arbitration court, expert testimony, report of the arbitration court, execution of the report of the arbitration court, and suspension of privilege. Initial conclusions of this article include: 1. After comparing the applications of the TBT Agreement with the FTAs signed by People’s Republic of China, the application in the imports and exports as well as industrial products and agricultural products should be enhanced in terms of establishment of this mechanism. 2. Based on the comparison between TBT Agreement and FTAs signed by People’s Republic of China, our government can sign future FTAs following the regulations of TBT Agreement. 3. With regard to mutual recognition, reference to the recognition modes (“Basic Mode” and “Extraterritorial Mode”) proposed by Japanese scholars can be made. 4. As for dispute settlement in technical barriers to trade, the requirements of dispute settlement can be thorough by following TBT Agreement.