Tài liệu Tra loi chinh sach

TRA LOI CAU HOI 15. Objectives of technical barrier to trade. Technical regulations and product standards may vary from country to country. Having many different regulations and standards makes life difficult for producers and exporters. If regulations are set arbitrarily, they could be used as an excuse for protectionism. The Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade tries to ensure that regulations, standards, testing and certification procedures do not create unnecessary obstacles, while also providing members with the right to implement measures to achieve legitimate policy objectives, such as the protection of human health and safety, or the environment. 16. Differences between SPS and TBT Measures: It should be noted that health-related trade restrictions are addressed by both the SPS Agreement and the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT Agreement) The SPS Agreement covers health protection measures as defined above. The TBT Agreement covers all technical requirements, voluntary standards and the procedures to ensure that these are met (called conformity assessment procedures), except when these are SPS measures as defined by the SPS Agreement. SPS measures typically deal with:            additives in food or drink contaminants in food or drink toxic substances in food or drink residues of veterinary drugs or pesticides in food or drink certification: food safety, animal or plant health processing methods with implications for food safety labelling requirements directly related to food safety plant/animal quarantine declaring areas free from pests or disease preventing disease or pests spreading to or in a country other sanitary requirements for imports (e.g. imported pallets used to transport animals) TBT measures typically deal with:     labelling of composition or quality of food, drink and drugs quality requirements for fresh food volume, shape and appearance of packaging packaging and labelling for dangerous chemicals and toxic substances, pesticides and fertilizer        regulations for electrical appliances regulations for cordless phones, radio equipment etc. textiles and garments labelling testing vehicles and accessories regulations for ships and ship equipment safety regulations for toys etc. 7. Dumping If a company exports a product at a price lower than the price it normally charges on its own home market, it is said to be “dumping” the product. Is this unfair competition? Subsidies and countervailing measures This agreement does two things: it disciplines the use of subsidies, and it regulates the actions countries can take to counter the effects of subsidies. It says a country can use the WTO’s dispute settlement procedure to seek the withdrawal of the subsidy or the removal of its adverse effects. Or the country can launch its own investigation and ultimately charge extra duty (known as “countervailing duty”) on subsidized imports that are found to be hurting domestic producers. Safeguards: emergency protection from imports A WTO member may restrict imports of a product temporarily (take “safeguard” actions) if its domestic industry is injured or threatened with injury caused by a surge in imports. 6. Contingent protection Contingent protection could refer to almost any political or legal trade barrier where it is necessary for an evidentiary and argumentative burden of some sort to be discharged by a domestic industry to justify protection from imports. Such protection could take any number of different forms. However, as a term of art for trade lawyers, contingent protection is more specifically taken to mean safeguard measures, or what is known as emergency action in GATT-speak, and the remedies of anti-dumping and countervailing duties. Quarantine fits the wider description of contingent protection, but because of its scientific basis is not thought of as being based on attitudes towards “unfair” trade. 4. decision making mechanism of WTO According to the Director General, the rule of consensus is the ‘democratic guarantee’ of the institution, since everyone in theory has a voice. However, the reality is quite different. How democratic decision-making is by consensus, depends on the ability of countries to voice their dissent. The power politics within the institution means that dissent by any country in a formal meeting, which goes to the extent of blocking consensus, is rare.