On May 30, the 13th Wuhan University International Law Forum 2018 was successfully held in Room 323 of Law School. The speaker was Ai Li, the division head of Department of Commerce in Hubei Province. He gave a speech about the legal problems in trade under the background of sino-US trade friction while the host is Prof. Qi Tong.
Ai Li is the 2nd inspector of the Department of Commerce in Hubei Province. He is also the arbitrator of CIETAC and Arbitrator of Wuhan Arbitration Commission. He has been engaged in policy and regulation, foreign investment (FDI), import and export fair trade (WTO and trade remedy, etc.), foreign trade, e-commerce, as well as government department hearings, administrative reconsideration and administrative litigation.
His speech mainly emphasizes on the legal perspective and came up with some enlightenments. He also pointed out some problems in international trade. For example, international trade law is being politicized, instrumentalized, the stagnation of the multilateral trading system, the slow progress of WTO negotiations, the fragmentation of the global trading system, etc., and emphasizes that international trade is gradually moving from free trade to fair trade.
Subsequently, Director Ai introduced the factual background of this Sino-US trade dispute, mainly including some of the US practices, China's counter-measures and the legal measures taken by China and the United States respectively. After introducing the factual background, Director Ai analyzed the main legal issues in the dispute and explained in detail the US domestic law provisions involved in the dispute, which highlighted the 301 clauses (including the special 301 clause and super 301 clause) and its relationship with WTO rules and its impact on China. Director Ai believes that under the background of all-round competition between China and the United States, due to the structural imbalance between China and the United States, the friction between the two sides in the economic and trade field is inevitable. Accordingly, Sino-US trade at the bilateral and multilateral levels. The legal dispute will also exist for a long time.
Finally, Director Ai proposed nine revelations brought about by this dispute: (1) China should actively seize the right to speak of international economic and trade rules; (2) adhere to the multilateral trading system; (3) China should timely amend relevant domestic laws. (4) Pay attention to the trade friction response of goods trade, increase the intensity of international negotiations between governments; (5) actively explore the principle of fair competition in international service trade; (6) strengthen and improve various trade barrier investigation methods; Accelerate the introduction of the Export Control Law; (8) Strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights in China and (9) Make full use of the multilateral trade dispute resolution mechanism to challenge the legitimacy of US domestic law in the WTO.
In the questioning session, Director Ai answered questions about his classmates. At the end of the lecture, the moderator Professor Qi summed up and highly praised the lecture. He believed that the lecture theory combined with the actual situation, profound and simple, and detailed information provided a lot of background information and valuable research propositions, and a wonderful speech to Director Ai. He expressed his gratitude and said that he would strengthen cooperation with the Hubei Provincial Department of Commerce and invite more experienced workers to lecture at the International Law Institute. (Written by: Tang Ziyi)
