Wto and Chinese Agriculture Answers

Introduction: 1 What is wtoet5 WTO? It is the abbreviation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) It is the only international organization dealing with trade rules among countries This organization is one of the outcomes of the Uruguay round of GATT In December 1990, at the Brussels Ministerial Conference of the Uruguay round of GATT, countries formally decided to establish the WTO In April 1994, the WTO agreement was formally signed On January 1, 1995, the WTO was formally established At the beginning of its establishment, there were 75 members, followed by new members As of October 2001, there were 142 members The trade system implemented by et5 WTO is to formulate common trade rules and relations through multilateral negotiations, rather than dealing with bilateral trade relations between two countries alone Therefore, the trade system of WTO is called a multilateral trade system ET52: what are the main functions and basic principles of WTO? The purpose of WTO is mainly four points: (1) to promote fair competition and free trade; (2) to promote the transparency of trade rules; (3) to provide places for trade negotiations; (4) to solve trade disputes Et5 The WTO agreement covers a wide range of fields, including agricultural products, textiles and clothing, banks, telecommunications, government procurement, industrial standards, food hygiene, knowledge products, etc the specific contents are also very complex However, there are several simple and fundamental principles in all these agreements and documents: (1) the principle of non discrimination (MFN treatment, national treatment, etc.) The principle of meeting; (2) the principle of market opening (freer trade); (3) the principle of fair competition; (4) the principle of balance of rights and obligations; (5) the principle of encouraging development and economic reform (the principle of preferential and differential treatment for developing countries) Et53: what is the principle of non discrimination et5? The so-called principle of non discrimination means that all members of the WTO should be treated fairly and equally Specifically, the principle of non discrimination mainly contains two meanings: most favored nation treatment and national treatment Et5 most favored nation treatment is to treat all members equally Countries cannot create discrimination or inequality among their trading partners If one country grants MFN treatment to one country of WTO members, other WTO members will automatically enjoy MFN treatment There are also some exceptions to et5 MFN treatment, such as the WTO allowing members of regional organizations such as free trade areas and customs unions to enjoy special treatment For example, the special and differential treatment of developing countries cannot be regarded as the most favored nation treatment to be shared by all Et5 the principle of national treatment requires WTO members to treat foreign products and domestic products equally in the domestic market, that is, foreign products enjoy the same treatment as domestic products in the domestic market, which is called national treatment This principle also applies to foreign and domestic services as well as trademarks, copyrights, patents, etc Et5 The principle of national treatment is applicable only after the products, services and intellectual property rights enter the national territory Therefore, it is not against the principle of national treatment to impose tariffs on imported products, although no tariffs will be imposed on domestically produced products Et54: what is the principle of fair competition et5 WTO has established a set of rules to promote fair competition, so as to determine which trade practices are fair, which are unfair, and how the government should respond to unfair competition For example, in order to sell their agricultural products, developed countries often adopt the way of subsidizing exports to improve the international competitiveness of their agricultural products, while developing countries lack the economic strength to subsidize their agricultural exports, which puts developing countries at a disadvantage in the international trade competition Therefore, WTO tries to restrict its members from using unfair trade means such as dumping or subsidies to disturb normal trade behaviors In case of unfair means of trade in violation of WTO treaties, WTO allows the injured countries to take corresponding anti-dumping or anti subsidy measures to remedy according to WTO treaties, so as to ensure that international trade is carried out on the basis of fairness as much as possible Et5 5: what is the principle of market opening? Many countries want to export their products and services to other countries' markets, but do not want other countries' products and services to enter their own markets That is to say, we want other countries to open their markets, not their own In order to achieve this result, many countries adopt high tariff or non-tariff measures to prevent the products and services of other countries from entering their own markets WTO believes that the world market can bring many benefits, so WTO has been committed to promoting members to open their markets to each other and gradually move towards trade liberalization This basic spirit of opening market to each other is called the principle of market opening Et56: what is the principle of transparency? Et5 WTO attaches great importance to the principle of transparency The so-called principle of transparency is that all countries should disclose trade-related policies, systems and rules to other members in a timely manner The principle of transparency is embodied in four aspects: (1) all trade rules are required to be open and accessible to all; (2) these trade rules are required to be quite clear and unambiguous, not vague or ambiguous; (3) these trade rules are required to have certain stability rather than changing at any time, otherwise people will not be able to comply with trade Rules to act; (4) if trade rules need to change, it is necessary to inform countries in advance so that they can be prepared Et5 according to the principle of transparency, the WTO's trade policy review mechanism should also regularly supervise the trade policies of all countries Et57: what is the principle of encouraging economic reform and development et5 the WTO was established to ensure the sustainable development of national economy and world economy Economists, trade experts and member governments also believe that the WTO system is conducive to the economic development of all countries and the world, and the economic development can promote the growth of international trade Otherwise, there will not be so many countries and regions willing to join the WTO A series of trade negotiations carried out by WTO are based on the fundamental idea of promoting economic development This idea is called the principle that WTO encourages economic development On the other hand, it is generally believed that economic reform is an important way to promote economic development Therefore, the principle of encouraging economic development is also called the principle of encouraging economic reform and development According to this principle, WTO allows developing countries to provide special assistance, preferential and differential treatment, and special support to countries with economic transition, so as to help developing countries and countries with economic reform to carry out economic reform and develop their own economies Et58: what is the principle of balance of rights and obligations? After entering WTO, one country can share the achievements and rights reached in all WTO agreements, such as the most favored nation treatment, national treatment, market access, tariff reduction, etc that can be enjoyed when entering other countries' markets But at the same time, it must also provide these rights and treatment to other WTO members Therefore, while enjoying the rights and treatment provided by other members, it is also necessary to provide equal rights and treatment to other members, which is called the principle of balance of rights and obligations Et59: what kind of organizational structure does WTO have? The organizational structure of et5 WTO can be said to be four levels in general The highest level is the Ministerial Conference, the second level is the General Council, the third level is the Council, and the fourth level is the Committee and working group In addition, the WTO has set up a secretariat to serve the above four levels and members Et5 ministerial conference is the highest authority of WTO, which is composed of ministerial representatives of all countries The Ministerial Conference, which is held at least once every two years, can decide on all the issues involved in any multilateral trade agreement Et5 the General Council is responsible for the day-to-day work between the two ministerial meetings It has three forms or three names: the General Council, the dispute settlement body and the trade policy review structure Use different brands for different transactions It is composed of all members and reports to the Ministerial Conference Et5 Council is a subsidiary body of the General Council According to the WTO agreement, under the General Council, according to the three major areas of trade in goods, trade in services and intellectual property, there are three councils respectively: Council for trade in goods (hereinafter referred to as "Council for goods"), Council for trade in services (hereinafter referred to as "Council for services") and Council for trade related intellectual property (hereinafter referred to as "Council for intellectual property") The Council is still composed of all WTO members and has subordinate bodies to report to the General Council Et5 WTO committees can be divided into two categories according to their affiliation, one is subordinate to the General Council and the other is subordinate to the Council Et5 is similar to the Committee WTO working groups are divided into two categories: those under the General Council and those under the Council Some working groups are temporary For example, according to China's WTO accession application, a China Working Group will be established After China's WTO accession problem is solved, the China Working Group will be dissolved Et510: how to join and exit wtoet5? After January 1, 1995, countries or separate tariff areas that want to join the WTO must be negotiated The basic procedure of WTO's admission of new members is divided into four stages: et5 (1) applicants provide their basic information (2) the applicant state submits its own conditions for accession On the basis of the first stage, the applicant country conducts bilateral negotiations with each member who has bilateral negotiation requirements The reason why bilateral negotiations should be carried out one by one is that the trade interests of different countries are different, and each member expects to obtain its own interests from the new members Therefore, the bilateral negotiation process one by one in this stage is extremely complex and protracted (3) the applicant country and the WTO working group draft the accession conditions together (4) WTO decides to admit new members Submit the final package of working group reports, accession protocols and schedules to the WTO General Council or ministerial meeting for consideration If two-thirds of the WTO members vote for the agreement, the applicant country can sign the protocol of accession to the WTO; then the parliament or legislature of the applicant country will ratify the agreement, and the country will officially become a member of the WTO (5) the procedure of withdrawing from WTO is much simpler than that of applying for accession Any member of WTO can withdraw from WTO freely Members wishing to withdraw shall formally notify the director general of the WTO in writing Effective six months from the date of receipt of the written notice of withdrawal by the director general Et5 11: what is the basic structure of WTO agreement? The core of et5 World Trade Organization is WTO agreement These agreements are negotiated and signed by most countries (regions) in the world, providing basic legal rules for international business activities The official document of the WTO agreement is the multilateral trade talks of the Uruguay Round