中國在 WTO 戰中逐漸走向成熟

【富比世提供／Tina Wang】

在重大的文化轉變過程中，中國在向 WTO 提起訴訟方面正逐漸變得氣勢凌人。在全球經濟衰退的形勢之下，美國或許會發現自己上 WTO 法庭的次數會越來越頻繁。

中國羞於向世界貿易組織 (World Trade Organization) 的最高法院對其他國家提起訴訟的日子已經一去不復返了。學者和律師表示，面對全球經濟危機下出口行業的不景氣和不斷強化的保護主義，中國政府在針對美國提起 WTO 訴訟方面將變得更加從容而積極。

這意味著中國政府態度上的一種重大轉變——從視 WTO 爭端為雙邊外交的失敗，轉變為將 WTO 爭端解決機制作為一種極為有用且必不可少的外貿政策手段。對於中國政府而言，在 WTO 中一個更為成熟的原告身分，也是其在今年這種全球經濟秩序下不斷提升的自信的重要組成部分。

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香港大學 (University of Hong Kong) 國際法教授兼副院長 Chin Leng Lim 表示：「似乎中國在 WTO 的貿易爭端正成為其外貿政策中積極的組成部分。如果我是 Claire Reade（美國貿易代表辦公室 (U.S. Trade Representative's Office) 中國貿易執法首席法律顧問），我就會非常擔心，因為中國現在也開始起訴了。」

中國於週五就美國因健康方面的擔憂限制中國雞肉進口向 WTO 提起訴訟。1月份時，WTO 首次成立了一個專家小組，就中國起訴美國對中國產鋼管、越野輪胎和複合編織袋非法徵收關稅一案進行裁定。「中國政府在處理 WTO 相關爭端中變得愈發自信，」香港中文大學 (Chinese University of Hong Kong) 法律和貿易學者王江雨 (Wang Jiangyu) 說。

對於中國政府而言，這在心態和策略方面都是不小的轉變。政府智囊機構中國社會科學院的國際經濟法副主任劉敬東表示，自中國2001年加入 WTO 的這些年來，中國政府更傾向於外交和雙邊談判，而不是提起法律訴訟。劉敬東說，採取起訴另一個國家這種特別手段，在過去意味著外交失敗。劉敬東曾在全球貿易問題方面與中國商務部和其他政府官員密切合作過。

Lim 表示：「對於一個東亞國家而言，透過起訴處理外交事務是文化上的一種轉變。東亞國家基本上不喜歡起訴其他國家。轉變這種思維模式需要很大的努力。」

研究人員表示，早些年，中國在發現美國和歐盟向它提起訴訟時就會迅速回避。例如，2004年，中國直接就美國向 WTO 提出的一項有關中國透過徵收積體電路進口稅非法支持國內半導體生產商的訴訟達成了和解。這也是中國回避的第一個 WTO 爭端。之後中國還就其他兩項重大案件達成了和解，它們分別涉及2004年至2006年間中國向歐盟出口焦炭以及中國對美國牛皮卡紙徵收反傾銷稅。Lim 說：「中國給人的印象就是不願意打官司。」

劉敬東指出，WTO「有權審核我們的內部事務和法律條令」，這是中國政府所要面對的問題。王江雨稱，中國政府對那些針對中國提起的貿易訴訟感到非常不悅，極力為自己辯護，而不是把它們當成一種法律事務來看。Harris Moure 律師事務所駐青島合夥人、對中國法律有30年研究經驗的 Steven Dickinson 說，過去中國政府的態度是「這些都非常荒謬可笑。我們不會理會」。

然而，一場至關重要的汽車零部件案成為了轉捩點，分析人士表示。在這場官司中，中國於9月份敗給了美國、歐盟和加拿大。這是中國第一次遭受重挫。

WTO 的裁決稱，中國非法向在國內裝配汽車的汽車生產商徵收汽車零部件進口稅。Lim 說：「人們都想知道中國為什麼會在這場官司中鬥爭到底。」各方向 WTO 提起這項訴訟後，各國在正式磋商階段試圖透過協商解決這個問題，然而中國卻並沒有在此期間達成和解。為了審理這個案件，WTO 成立了一個專家小組，結果中國輸了這場官司。之後中國又向由成員國審判員輪流主審的上訴機構——WTO 的最高法院上訴，但還是以敗訴告終。

中國在知識產權領域的鬥爭也同樣艱難。中國對美國提出的反盜版不力控告進行了積極的辯解，在指控中，美國指責中國法律在打擊制假方面的力度不夠。1月份，WTO 最終拿出了一份折中的裁定：同意美國提出的中國必須保護國家審查人員禁止盜版的版權內容且必須對盜版做出刑事處罰的要求，但 WTO 同時也稱中國對盜版的刑事處罰並非過於不力。王江雨指出，中國已經從極力辯護的態度轉變為根據 WTO 規則進行更加自信的辨述。

中國為什麼做出了這一徹底轉變？其中有諸多猜測。隨著中國新一代政府官員將 WTO 爭端解決程序視為一種技術手段而非西方法律體制霸權，中國政府的文化觀念或許已經發生了變化。中國可能需要一定的時間才認為自己充分瞭解如何利用 WTO 訴訟程序來鞏固其經濟優勢，認識到不應該放棄那些有著重大意義的案件，尤其是在全球需求急劇下降的時候。

「中國已經從 WTO 體制中獲益匪淺」，同時也應當在 WTO 面前爭取自己的合法權益，劉敬東表示。「尤其是在經濟危機的形勢下，如果我們不爭取這些權益，我們將蒙受巨大的損失。」

「中國的觀點是『想一想，就能夠雙管齊下，我們可以主動提出訴訟，而不是單純地對針對我們的控訴進行辯解』。這是一種新的態度，也是一種正確的態度，」Dickinson 指出。另一個出口大國日本也在上世紀80年代有過類似的經歷。當時日本的出口在全世界都面臨壁壘，因此不得不學會如何提出訴訟，Lim 和 Dickinson 補充道。

正如在 G-20 峰會中表現出的自信那樣，中國還希望向世界證明，中國是國際經濟秩序中的一支領導力量，中國將在現有的規則和機制下開展貿易，中國能夠做得很好。

由於出口驟降，大型國有企業也向中國政府施加了強大的壓力，要求政府進一步保障它們的利益或代它們提起貿易訴訟。今年中國向 WTO 專家小組提起了第一項訴訟，保護國內遭受全球經濟危機沉重打擊的鋼鐵龍頭，這不並是巧合。

A Series: China's Trade Offensive
China's Coming Of Age In The WTO War
Tina Wang, 04.20.09, 10:00 PM EDT
In a massive shift, China is getting more aggressive about launching WTO disputes. Amid the global economic slump, the U.S. may find itself getting dragged to the WTO's court more often.



In Pictures: China's Coming Of Age In The WTO War
HONG KONG -- Gone are the days when China shied away from launching suits against other countries before the World Trade Organization's top court. Facing a distressed export sector and rising protectionism amid the global economic crisis, the Chinese government will get more comfortable and aggressive about lodging WTO complaints against the U.S., scholars and lawyers say.

This entailed a massive attitude shift for Beijing, from seeing WTO disputes as a failure of bilateral diplomacy to wielding the WTO dispute settlement mechanism as an extremely useful, and necessary, instrument of foreign trade policy. For Beijing, a more mature role as WTO plaintiff is also part and parcel of its growing assertiveness in the global economic order this year.

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"It looks as if China's WTO trade disputes are becoming a healthy part of its foreign trade policy," said Chin Leng Lim, an international law professor and associate dean at the University of Hong Kong. "If I were Claire Reade [the chief counsel for China trade enforcement at the U.S. Trade Representative's Office], I'd be pretty worried, because China's now the one doing the suing too."

In Pictures: China's Coming Of Age In The WTO War
On Friday, China filed a WTO complaint against the U.S. for effectively blocking chicken imports from China on health concerns. In January, the WTO, for the first time ever, created an expert panel to decide a suit that was initiated by China, which accused the U.S. of illegally levying duties against Chinese steel pipes, off-road tires and laminated woven sacks. "The Chinese government is becoming increasingly confident in handling WTO-related disputes," said Wang Jiangyu, a legal and trade scholar at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

For Beijing, this is no small shift in both mentality and strategy. For years after China joined the WTO in 2001, the government preferred foreign diplomacy and bilateral negotiation over starting a legal dispute, said Liu Jingdong, vice-director of international economic law at the government think tank Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Taking the extraordinary step of suing another country meant that its diplomacy was a failure, said Liu, who has worked closely with the Ministry of Commerce and other government officials on global trade matters.

"It takes a cultural switch for an East Asian country to conduct diplomacy by going to court," Lim said. "By and large, East Asian countries don't like to sue other countries. It is a massive effort for them to switch that mode of thinking."

In the early years, China caved quickly when it found itself threatened with a lawsuit by the U.S. and E.U., researchers say. For example, in 2004, China immediately settled a WTO complaint by the U.S. that China illegally helped domestic semiconductor makers by taxing imports of integrated circuits. That was the first WTO dispute that China had to fend off. China then settled in two other major cases, involving its coke exports to the E.U. and Chinese anti-dumping duties on U.S. kraft linerboard, from 2004 to 2006. "People were getting the impression that China simply didn't want to litigate," Lim said.

The government was facing the WTO's "power to review our internal affairs, our statutes," Liu said. And that made Beijing "very unhappy" with trade complaints initiated against China, to which it responded with radical rhetoric, rather than legal engagement, Wang said. Beijing's attitude was, "this is all just absurd. We're not going to mess with it," said Steven Dickinson, a Qingdao-based partner at Harris Moure who has worked in Chinese law for 30 years.

But a turning point came with the crucial auto-parts case, which China lost in September to the U.S., E.U. and Canada, observers say. That was China's first major defeat. The WTO ruled that China illegally taxed foreign imports of car parts for automakers assembling vehicles in China. "People were wondering why this case was being fought to the bitter end," Lim said. China did not settle during the formal consultation period, in which countries negotiate and try to resolve the matter, that occurs after parties lodge a trade complaint with the WTO. China lost the case when the WTO created an expert panel to make a ruling. China then appealed to the WTO's top court, the appellate body that rotates judges from member countries, and lost as well.

China also fought hard in intellectual property rights. It vigorously defended against the U.S. anti-piracy complaint, which charged that Chinese law was not harsh enough on counterfeiting. In January, the WTO eventually handed out a mixed decision: It agreed with the U.S. that China must protect copyrighted content banned by state censors and had to provide criminal penalties on piracy. But it sided with China, saying that China's criminal penalties for piracy were not too weak. China has switched from taking a radical tune to making more confident arguments based on the rhetoric of WTO rules, Wang said.

Why has China made this about-face? There are various speculations. Beijing's cultural attitude may have changed, as a new generation of government officials saw the WTO dispute resolution process as a technical instrument, rather than a hegemony of the Western legal system. China may have needed time to become more comfortable with using WTO suits to its economic advantage, realizing that it should not give up on cases where a lot is at stake, particularly amid the global demand slump. "China has gotten a lot of benefits from the WTO system," and it should press its legal rights before the WTO as well, said Liu. "Especially in the environment of economic crisis, if we fail to use them, we incur a great loss."

"China's thinking, 'wait a second, it can go both ways. Instead of purely defending against claims against us, we can make our own claims.' That's a new attitude, and a proper attitude," Dickinson said. Another export powerhouse, Japan, went through a similar experience in the 1980s. Its exports faced barriers all around the world, and it had to learn how to litigate, Lim and Dickinson added.

As evidenced by its assertiveness in the G-20 summit, China also wants to show that it is a leader within the international economic order, that it will play by the existing rules and institutions, and that it can play it well.

Facing plunging exports, powerful state-owned companies, too, are putting strong pressure on Beijing to advance their interests or voice their trade complaints. It is no coincidence that the first WTO suit launched by China this year to reach a WTO expert panel protects the country's giant steelmakers, which have been squeezed by the global economic crisis.

In Pictures: China's Coming Of Age In The WTO War
Next part in the series: With the U.S. and China plunging headlong into massive stimulus measures that affect export sectors, both sides will have plenty of bones to pick with each other. Facing more WTO disputes on the horizon, Chinese legal capacity is not as strong or experienced at the laborious, costly WTO cases as are the powerful Washington law firms. For now, Beijing has settled for hiring foreign lawyers to work with its own, but China's law firms are racing to build up their WTO practices. And Chinese lawyers are racing to advise the country's industries and local governments on WTO cases and issues that will impact them.