Paper Titles & Abstracts

Access to raw materials is an issue that has moved up the political agenda. For instance, rare earths have attracted a great deal of attention due to China pursuing a restrictive export policy. The EU is increasing its trade policy activities in this area.The paper will look at the merits of the Raw Materials case at the WTO. It appears that the Panel and the Appellate Body had a one-sided interpretation in some elements of this WTO dispute settlement case. In particular two issues will be explored. First, China's right to invoke Article XX of the GATT was barred because of a particular interpretation of China's Protocol of Accession. This has been considered unfair by China and some commentators have likened the Accession Protocol Accession to an 'unequal treaty'. Second, the interpretation of Article XI:2(a) of GATT will be examined. This article allows export restraints when they are temporarily applied to prevent or relieve critical shortages essential to the exporting party. China could not invoke this article mainly because of the particular interpretation and applications of the terms 'temporarily applied' and 'critical shortages'.