Is the US Method of Challenging China's IP-related Practices Legally Tenable from an International Legal Perspective?

AuthorYang Yu
PositionAssociate Professor at WTO Chair Institute-China (WTO Chairs Programme) of Shanghai University of International Business and Economics; Research Fellow in Shanghai Center for Global Trade and Economic Governance
Pages413-414
Section 301 Investigation against China 413
XI JEAIL 2 (2018)
Yang Yu
The US initiated a Section 301 investigation against China in 2017. Such a unilateral
investigation has run counter to the explicit commitments in the Statement of
Administrative Action. Even the basically reasonable four corners defense can
neither apply nor justify this investigation. Consequently, especially based on the
Panels additional emphasis, the conditional international legality conrmed by the
Panel of DS152 case in the WTO should be untenable in this latest specic context.
By reutilizing this globally aversive tool, the United States could possibly prove itself
to be an unreliable partner and this would unavoidably incur severe reputational
costs and other potential harms to itself. Furthermore, this might, to some degree,
undermine or even undo the advances achieved in more than twenty years of
international rule of law in world trade after the establishment of the WTO. All in all,
only mutually benecial solutions are most desirable, effective and sustainable for both
China and the US.
Keywords
Section 301, IPR, WTO Dispute Settlement, China-US Trade War,
International Law
Is the US Method of
Challenging China
s
IP-related Practices
Legally Tenable from
an International
Legal Perspective?
Associate Professor at WTO Chair Institute-China (WTO Chairs Programme) of Shanghai University of International
Business and Economics; Research Fellow in Shanghai Center for Global Trade and Economic Governance. Ph.D.
(Fudan). ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5467-6397. This paper is supported by Shanghai Philosophical and Social
Science General Reserch Project (No. 2018BFX020) and WTO Chairs Programme. The author may be contacted at:
wtoyuyang@suibe.edu.cn / Address: Rm. 412, Multifunctional Building, 620 Gubei Road, Shanghai 200336 P.R. China.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14330/jeail.2018.11.2.08

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