A few days ago, the World w88 Organization announced the Appellate Body report on the case of the United States, the European Union, and Japan against China’s export control measures for rare earth, tungsten, and molybdenum-related products. The Appellate Body upheld the panel's ruling that China's export tariffs and export quota measures for the products involved in the case were inconsistent with relevant WTO rules and China's WTO accession commitments, and China ultimately lost the case. This means that China’s rare earth export restrictions may be withdrawn from the stage of history.

Where will China’s rare earth industry go in the future? What new ideas should be adopted for rare earth management measures?

Why did the rare earth case fail?

Did the rare earth case fail because the Chinese defense team was not strong enough?

In this regard, Chen Weidong, a professor at the Law w88 casino of the w88 casino, believes: “The team defending on behalf of the Chinese government has made its best efforts. It is not objective to say that the lawsuit was lost because China did not work hard. "Chen Weidong said that since2012year3month1311828_119312009The United States, the European Union, and Mexico reported toWTOAppeal submitted,WTOYu201112078_12095201212123_12144WTOThe ruling cancels the export taxes and export quotas applicable to the raw materials involved. This undoubtedly became a "preview" of this case.

In this rare earth case, there are two main rare earth export management measures that China was sued for, one is export tax and the other is export quota.

"Join in our countryWTOAt that time, our country promised to onlyWTOListed in the Protocol84Products with a tax code are subject to export duties not exceeding the binding level. The United States and other countries are suing China for export tariffs on rare earths precisely because China is imposing tariffs on rare earths.58Implementing export taxes on rare earth products violates China’s accessionWTONo. of the Protocol11Article3Model. In terms of export quotas, the United States believes that China has violated Article of the General Agreement on Tariffs and w88.11Articles. "Chen Weidong explained.

For the above-mentioned lawsuit, our country cited Article 1 of the General Agreement on Tariffs and w8820Of the general exceptionsb“To protect human, animal or plant life or health” andgHe defended the case "for the purpose of conserving exhaustible natural resources", but ultimately lost the case due to the impact of the outcome of the raw material case and issues with the terms and conditions. Huang Dongli, a professor at the Institute of International Law of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, explained: “The main reason for losing the lawsuit is that we did not pay attention to the drafting of our basic protection policy itself.WTO's rules remain consistent. ”

Kong Qingjiang, a professor at the w88 casino of International Law at China University of Political Science and Law, pointed out that although some people are dissatisfied with the ruling of the World w88 Organization’s Appellate Body, the underlying problem is that China’s rare earth export management system, which mainly consists of export quotas and export taxes, has major problems. In principle, the General Agreement on Tariffs and w88 does not allow members to implement quantitative w88 restrictive measures. The only legal means to restrict exports is to impose tariffs, which China gave up when it joined the WTO.

How to deal with losing the lawsuit?

If the lawsuit is lost, how will China respond?

The relevant person in charge of the Treaty and Law Department of the Ministry of Commerce said when talking about the failure of the rare earth case that China will carefully evaluate the WTO ruling, strengthen the management of resource products in a manner consistent with WTO rules, promote resource protection, maintain fair competition, and achieve sustainable development. China will properly handle the follow-up work on this case in accordance with the WTO dispute settlement procedural rules.

In the opinion of experts, China now faces three choices: First, within a reasonable period of implementation (generally15months) Our country will cancel or adjust those found to be in violationWTOThe original export tax and export quota management system of the rules. Second, maintain the existing export taxes and export quotas, but conduct compensation negotiations with the United States, Europe and Japan. Third, keep the existing export taxes and export quotas unchanged, and do not conduct compensation negotiations or the negotiations will be fruitless.

Kong Qingjiang analyzed that: “From a legal perspective, the only way is to modify the existing rare earth export management system within a reasonable period specified by the World w88 Organization and make it consistent with it.”Chen Weidong said that no matter which choice is made, China needs to make a comprehensive balance of interests, make choices, and rebuild and improve the export management system of resource products on the premise of meeting sustainable development goals and industrial upgrading strategic goals.

Analysts say that China is likely to find a long-term development path and replace or cancel export tariffs with rare earth resource taxes. In this way, the final actual results are relatively positive for China. Kong Qingjiang believes that the resource tax method is a direction that can be considered, but it still needs to be fully demonstrated, because there is still the possibility of being considered incompatible with the General Agreement on Tariffs and w88 again.

Chen Weidong predicts that in the future, management measures such as domestic resource taxes will be the mainstay, implemented in parallel with domestic consumption restrictions, and policies supplemented by export quotas will help achieve a balance between the interests of all parties.

How to learn lessons?

“The loss of the rare earth case forced China to rethink its rare earth management system.” Kong Qingjiang pointed out, “The current low export price of rare earths is mainly because companies obtain rare earth mining rights in legal or even illegal ways, and then tend to seize the market at low prices. The two superimpose, resulting in a vicious circle effect. The loss of the rare earth case tells us that economic management and administrative measures are not unconstrained.”

In response to the sense of urgency caused by the loss of the rare earth case, Jia Yinsong, director of China’s National Rare Earth Office, said at the rare earth industry forum held in Baotou recently that in order to optimize and enhance the international competitiveness of the rare earth industry, it is necessary to grasp the front-end processes such as rare earth mining, smelting and separation, establish a good market order on the back end, crack down on rare earth violations, and standardize market order. Only by achieving substantial results in cracking down on illegal actions can the rare earth industry develop healthily.

Kong Qingjiang suggested: "The appropriate way is to strengthen the market-oriented reform of rare earth development rights, so that the acquisition of development rights can reflect and transmit the supply and demand relationship of the market. At the same time, strengthen the supervision of environmental governance, thereby forcing companies to spend more We must focus on environmental governance in the mining and processing of rare earths, and at the same time, calculate the environmental protection costs in the mining and processing of rare earths into the export price of rare earths. In a word, we must straighten out issues such as domestic rare earth property rights and environmental pollution, and accelerate institutional reform.”

Huang Dongli believes that losing the lawsuit has obvious benefits, which is to make various management departments realize the importance of working together to achieve a common goal. If you formulate your own policies alone, you will have different opinions. Administrative management requires unified coordination and is related to the legal system. Generally speaking, this is good for promoting our economy and legal system.

Kong Qingjiang commented on this: "When launching any industrial policy, it is necessary to fully evaluate the compliance of the policy with the World w88 Organization Agreement and the WTO Accession Agreement in advance. Of course, studying the WTO Agreement and the WTO Accession Agreement, including WTO dispute settlement cases and their legal principles, will obviously help us improve the compliance of the policy and also help improve our legal response capabilities."

Join in our countryWTOComing soon15At the turn of the year, w88 compliance work becomes more and more urgent.6The "Notice on Further Strengthening w88 Policy Compliance" issued by the State Council in March also mentioned that various departments should conduct compliance assessments in the process of formulating w88 policies. All regions and departments attach great importance to w88 policy compliance and continuously improve their awareness of international w88 rules.

In our country, w88 policy involves more than just one department, the Ministry of Commerce. To this end, Huang Dongli put forward two suggestions: First, set up a department to overall coordinate the policy formulation of other departments; second, experts and scholars in related fields should actively participate in policy formulation to ensure that policy formulation complies with the international obligations we have committed to. "In building a natural resource management system, experts need to participate to verify the compliance with international rules, not just the participation of administrative officials and legal departments."

(our reporter Chen Heng Correspondent of this newspaper Guo Xiaodan Zhao Peng)

Original report link:

http://epaper.gmw.cn/gmrb/html/2014-08/20/nw.D110000gmrb_20140820_2-05.htm?div=-1

"China High-tech Industry Herald"：WTOAfter the lawsuit, where should the rare earth industry go?

Original report link:

http://paper.chinahightech.com/html/2014-08/18/content_8628.htm‍