China’s Implementation of the Rulings of the World Trade Organization: China and International Economic Law Series
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Overview
Amid the ongoing crisis surrounding the WTO, China’s role and behaviour in the multilateral trading system has attracted overwhelming attention. This timely monograph provides the first comprehensive and systemic analysis of China’s compliance with the rulings of the WTO’s dispute settlement mechanism (DSM). It covers all the disputes in which China has been a respondent during its 17-year WTO membership and offers a detailed discussion of China’s implementation of adverse WTO rulings, its approaches to settling WTO disputes, the possible explanations for such approaches, and post-compliance issues. The book shows how China has utilised the limitations and flexibilities of WTO rulings to ensure that its implementation of the rulings not only delivers adequate compliance but also maintains its own interests.
Overall, this book argues that the issues relating to the quality of China’s compliance and post-compliance practices concern the loopholes within the DSM itself which may be utilised by all WTO Members. However, despite the loopholes, China’s record of compliance suggests that the DSM has been largely effective in inducing compliance and influencing domestic policy-making. It is therefore in the interest of all WTO Members and other stakeholders to protect the DSM as the ‘crown jewel’ of the multilateral trading system.
This monograph is the first comprehensive and thorough analysis of China’s implementation of WTO rulings.
Gives readers a unique understanding of the impacts of WTO rulings on China’s domestic economic, law and policy reforms
Analyses the strategies and approaches that China has undertaken to implement WTO rulings, and the reasons behind it
Looks critically at the implications for China’s trading partners on how China may behave in response to its obligations under FTAs
1. Introduction
I. Introduction
II. The DSM and its Function
III. Compliance under the DSM
IV. China’s Participation in the DSM
V. This Book
2. Disputes Settled Without WTO Rulings
I. Introduction
II. The Ten Disputes
III. An Assessment of China’s Approach to Settling Disputes by Agreement and Implications
IV. Conclusion
3. China’s Regulation of Imports and Implementation of WTO Rulings
I. Introduction
II. China’s Regulation of Imports
III. China – Auto Parts
IV. China – Publications and Audiovisual Products
V. Conclusion
4. China’s Regulation of Exports and Implementation of WTO Rulings
I. Introduction
II. China’s Regulation of Exports
III. China – Raw Materials & China – Rare Earths
IV. Conclusion
5. China’s Regulation of Trade in Services and Implementation of WTO Rulings
I. Introduction
II. China’s Regulation of Trade in Services
III. China – Publications and Audiovisual Products
IV. China – Electronic Payment Services
V. Conclusion
6. China’s Regulation of Intellectual Property and Implementation of WTO Rulings
I. Introduction
II. China’s Regulatory Regime for Intellectual Property
III. China – Intellectual Property Rights
IV. The Pending Disputes
V. Conclusion
7. China’s Trade Remedy Regime and Implementation of WTO Rulings
I. Introduction
II. China’s Trade Remedy Regime and Practice
III. WTO Trade Remedy Disputes and China’s Implementation
IV. China’s Approach to WTO Compliance and Implications............. 179
V. Conclusion
8. Conclusion
I. Introduction
II. China’s Compliance with WTO Rulings
III. Implications for WTO Members and the DSM
IV. The ‘Crown Jewel’ of the Multilateral Trading System
The value of Zhou’s book is its depth and the framework it provides. With regard to the depth, Zhou goes into great detail on the Chinese measures at issue, the specific WTO dispute settlement rulings, and the response by China. For each element, he offers a guide to how the dispute originated, played out, and ultimately concluded.
This is a timely and thoughtful study that merits considerable attention by WTO followers, especially at this time when the WTO dispute settlement system is undergoing significant challenges. As one of the most active players in WTO dispute settlement, China’s compliance record is an important measure of the strengths of the WTO dispute settlement mechanism more generally. Dr. Zhou’s analysis is measured in tone and the discussion is balanced. The descriptions of the disputes are well done and the analytical approach of organizing disputes according to subject matter makes this work an ideal research tool. This book is a highly useful addition to the WTO literature.
Dr Weihuan Zhou’s excellent and balanced book provides a much needed and long awaited antidote to the largely uninformed attacks on China’s compliance with the rulings of the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body. As this book shows, it is only through a comprehensive analysis of China’s responses to WTO rulings that one can see the truth of China’s compliance – which is not as a scofflaw, but rather, as one would expect from any large and complex economy, as a generally rule abiding participant. This is an important finding given China’s stature within the world, for it is critical that China be fully accepted into the international economic legal order but that cannot happen if there are widespread misunderstandings about China’s compliance in the WTO. Dr Zhou’s excellent and fair analysis of China’s WTO ruling compliance should consequently play a vital role in normalising China’s role in the world.
In the midst of a US-China “trade war,” one frequent refrain has been that China does not comply with WTO rules, and therefore the WTO cannot deal with China’s trade practices. Compliance with the full scope of WTO obligations is difficult to assess, but responses to WTO complaints and compliance with specific WTO panel and Appellate Body rulings can be judged through a careful and rigorous analysis. Weihuan Zhou has provided this analysis in his well-researched book. Academics, students, policy-makers and other observers would all benefit from reading this objective review of China’s experience as the subject of WTO complaints.
Dr. Weihuan Zhou has written an essential reference work for anyone who is interested in China and international law in general, and the impact of the WTO dispute settlement mechanism on China in particular.
- Title: China’s Implementation of the Rulings of the World Trade Organization
- Author: Weihuan Zhou
- Series: China and International Economic Law Series
- Publisher: Hart Publishing
- Print Publication Date: 2019
- Logos Release Date: 2024
- Pages: 280
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781509913572, 9781509952038, 1509952039, 1509913572
- Resource ID: LLS:9781509913572
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2025-04-22T12:34:24Z
Weihuan Zhou is Associate Professor, Director of Research, and an inaugural member of the Herbert Smith Freehills China International Business and Economic Law (CIBEL) Centre at the Faculty of Law and Justice, University of New South Wales (UNSW) Sydney, Australia.