Japan's recent trade policy is sometimes characterised as ‘aggressive legalism’ in the sense that it aggressively utilises the multilateral trade rules embodied in the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organisation in dealing with disputes with its trade partners. This policy may appear to be a marked departure from Japan's past practice of favouring bilateral, non‐legal settlement of trade disputes. Upon closer examination, however, while Japan has been moderately active in using the WTO dispute settlement process for resolving its trade disputes, it behaves more like a country that resorts to surgical strikes on selected targets (usually the United States) under a powerful cover of the European Community. Compared to Japan, Korea's attitude in the WTO is more aggressive. While the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) is not content with the status quo and is seeking to expand its aggressiveness in the WTO dispute settlement mechanism, it faces an uphill battle. One of the difficulties facing trade officials in Japan may be the lack of a national system for lodging WTO complaints, open to any citizens or firms, like Section 301 of the US Trade Act of 1974 or the European Trade Barriers Regulation. Nonetheless, in the historical context, Japan is far more aggressive than in the past in utilising the rules of the GATT/WTO to advance its national interests. It will never revert to the infamous practice of bilateralism and grey area measures.
China became a Member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in December 2001, after more than 15 years of difficult negotiations. This paper reviews the negotiating history of China's accession with special emphasis on the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade, which deals with standards and technical regulations as well as conformity assessment procedures. Because of the u nique domestic system in China, the negotiations regarding the TBT Agreement posed special difficulties both for China and the existing Members of the WTO. A close examination of the negotiation process reveals that China's negotiating position was a sophisticated one, with full understanding of the cutting edge of the developing jurisprudence in the WTO.
Professor Robert Emil Hudec (Fletcher School, Tufts University) passed away last week. He belonged, together with Professor John H. Jackson of Georgetown University Law Center and Professor Ernst-Ulrich Petersmann of University of Geneva, Faculty of Law, to the first generation of legal scholars who founded and developed the branch of international law known as international economic law, centering on the study of world trade rules negotiated in the World Trade Organization.
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