China and the United States WTO rare earth dispute case

About a month after the World Trade Organization (WTO) released an expert group report on China's rare earth export dispute, the respondent China submitted an appeal document to the WTO Appellate Body on April 25.

According to documents released by the WTO Appellate Body last Friday, China has raised objections to more than 170 paragraphs in the report of the expert group. It believes that the report misinterprets the WTO rules and China's accession documents, and then asks the Appellate Body to reject the Chinese side's "exports" in the report of the expert group. Quota "violation" and other rulings.

The Chinese side announced its appeal on April 17. Previously, the United States, one of the prosecutors of the rare earth case, also appealed to the Appellate Body on April 8. The US expressed dissatisfaction with the expert group's handling of the evidence in the ruling process.

This marks the highly anticipated China Rare Earth Export Dispute case entered into the appeals process by the dispute settlement procedure. Appeals can only present different opinions from the perspective of legal interpretation, and cannot be re-certified or newly opened.

In accordance with the rules, the Appellate Body should respond within 60 days and up to 90 days to support, modify or reject the Panel's report. After that, the dispute resolution body must accept it within 30 days or reject the appeal result on the basis of consensus.

At present, the other two prosecution parties in the rare earth case, the EU and Japan, have not yet filed an appeal with the United States.

On March 26, the WTO issued a report of the expert group on China's rare earth case, supporting most of the US, Japanese and European litigation requirements, and dismissed some of the prosecution's claims.

The panel of the Dispute Settlement Group reported that China violated regulations on export restrictions imposed on 17 rare earths raw materials, tungsten (tungsten) and molybdenum.

These three export restrictions are: tariffs on rare earth raw materials exported in various forms, quotas on exports for a certain period of time, and specific restrictions on the authority of exporting these raw materials.

The summary of the final ruling report explained that China’s accession documents promised to cancel these export tariffs, and these rare earth raw materials were not excluded from the annex; the export quotas were also set out of industrial policy objectives rather than “protection” purposes; The restrictions on the export power of enterprises also violate the WTO rules.

Once the report of this expert group was published, the parties such as China, the United States and Europe immediately made a statement. The US White House Trade Representative Office (USTR) believes that the US has won the case.

The Treaty and Law Department of the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China responded on the same day that the expert group recognized China's comprehensive resources and environmental protection measures for rare earths, tungsten and molybdenum, and rejected the EU's "export performance" for applying for molybdenum export quota enterprises. The Chinese side appreciates this.

The Ministry of Commerce said that China regrets that the expert group has ruled that the export tariffs, export quotas and export quota management and distribution measures of the products involved in the case are not in conformity with the WTO rules and China's commitment to join the WTO.

The Chinese side believes that under the increasingly severe resource and environmental pressures, the Chinese government has continuously strengthened and improved the comprehensive management of high-pollution, high-energy-consuming and resource-consuming products in recent years. "These management measures are in line with the sustainable development advocated by the WTO. aims".

Hosuk Lee-Makiyama, director of the European Union think tank ECIPE, who is good at trade issues, told the 21st Century Business Herald: "The possibility of successful Chinese appeal is very small." Mushan said that the central government tried to solve it through trade restrictions. The practice of environmental issues is not in line with WTO rules.

According to the industry organization China Rare Earth Society website on April 24, Reuters data, China's rare earth exports to the United States and Japan increased in March, which increased by 10.85% to the United States, an increase of 38.21%.

The data shows that rare earth exports to EU countries such as France, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands have also increased significantly year-on-year, and have fallen sharply in countries such as the UK and Austria.

Medical Infrared Thermometer

Touchless Thermometer,Infrared Forehead Thermometer,Contactless Thermometer,Digital Forehead Thermometer

Chengdu Augus Science Technology Co., Ltd. , https://www.vluckyaugus.com