WTO中的公共道德例外条款分析

Analysis of the Escape Clause of Public Morality in WTO

多边贸易协定一个重要目的就是消除贸易壁垒,实现贸易自由化。但是有时过度地追求贸易自由可能会给一国的公共道德造成威胁。因此,在多边贸易协定中往往内含了一些可以豁免缔约方缔约义务的例外条款。缔约方为了保护本国的公共道德,可以援引这些例外条款来对抗其他缔约方的指控。在WTO中,公共道德例外主要体现在GATT第20条(a)和GATS第14条(a)。另外,在《与贸易有关的知识产权协定》第27条第2款和《政府采购协定》第23条第2款中也规定了这种例外。

An important object of the multilateral trade agreements is to eliminate trade barriers, and achieve free trade . But sometimes excessive pursuit of free trade may give a country a threat to public morality. Thus, the multilateral trade agreements often contain some exception articles. In order to protect their public morality, parties can invoke these exceptions to the allegations against other parties. In the WTO, the public morals exception includes GATT Article 20 （a） and GATS Article 14 （a）. In addition, the Agreement on Trade - Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, Article 27, paragraph 2, and the Government Procurement Agreement, Article 23, paragraph 2, also provide for such exceptions.