从中国稀土案谈GATT第20条的适用范围

Defining the scope of GATT article XX through the lens of China-Rare Earths dispute

上诉机构在中国稀土案中判决中国无权引用GATT第20条一般例外条款为《中国入世议定书》第11.3段辩护,理由是该段落虽然与GATT第8条存在文本关联,但是该款并不对出口税施加限制。上诉机构的裁决虽然从法律解释技术和方法来看无可厚非,但是在此案中相关文本阙如的情况下仍然坚持僵硬的文本主义解释方法,不利于维护WTO法律制度权利与义务的完整和统一,剥夺发展中国家能够采取的有限的公共政策措施之一也凸显了判决的公平性与合法性问题。

In WTO China-Rare Earth dispute,the Appellate Body declined to accept China＇s right to invoke the exceptions to j ustify a breach of Paragraph 1 1 .3 of China＇s Accession Protocol for the reasons that a breach of the obligation to eliminate export duties contained in China’s Accession Protocol cannot be iden-tified in GATT Art.VIII although there is a connection between the two clauses.Viewing from the meth-od of treaty interpretation the j udge is blameless,but it bases on treaty silence and cannot be regarded as good j urisprudence.The textualism undermines the systematics and the balancing of rights and obligations of WTO and is particularly unfair and illegitimate for developing countries by depriving the limited public policy measures.