Chinese Law Prof Blog

China's first Trade Policy Review at the WTO

China's first Trade Policy Review (in MS Word format) is now available for downloading from the WTO web site. Thanks to Bill Abnett for the tip and for the following instructions:

1) Go to http://www.wto.org/

2) Go to "Trade Topics" at top of page.  When the menu appears, select the last item (Trade Policy Reviews).

3) Go to "The Reviews" (about a third of the way down the page), and click on "By Country."

4) Check all five boxes, and select "China" in the pull-down menu. Click on "search."

5) Expand the search results window to see everything. Choose the compression format: "exe" or "zip."

6) Check the documents you want and the preferred language (E = English; F = French; S = Spanish), and then click on "download."

7) Your browser will download the files in the "downloads" folder you have selected for your browser. Go to this folder and expand/decompress the "zip" or "exe" file. You will be prompted for the specific folder to which you would like your downloaded files decompressed.  REMEMBER the name of this folder - this is basic computer procedure, and WTO filenames have non-user friendly filenames. You might want to "Preview HTML" in your search results window, before you download.

USTR report on US-China trade relations

In February, the United States Trade Representative delivered to Congress a comprehensive review of US-China trade relations. The review, entitled "US-China Trade Relations: Entering a New Phase of Greater Accountability and Enforcement," is available here in PDF format. Here are some of USTR Portman's comments in his cover letter:

"Despite three consecutive years of growing U.S. exports to China, our bilateral trade relationship with China today lacks equity, durability and balance in the opportunities it provides. The time has come to readjust our trade policy with respect to China."

"As a mature trading partner, China should be held accountable for its actions and required to live up to its responsibilities, including opening markets and enforcing intellectual property rights. We will use all options available to meet this challenge."

Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade convenes in Washington

On April 11th, US Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez, United States Trade Ambassador Rob Portman, and US Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns met with Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi for the 17th annual senior-level meeting of the Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT). The JCCT is a structure established in 1983 for dialogue between the US and Chinese governments on issues affecting US-China trade and investment.

The Department of Commerce press release is here. Scroll down to the bottom of the press release for links to other related documents, including a transcript of the press conference where the famously tough-talking Wu Yi apparently has to explain one of her remarks by adding (in English), "It's a joke."

Report on China Mission of Special Rapporteur on Torture

The report on the China mission of Manfred Nowak, the Special Rapporteur on torture of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, was completed last month and is available at the UNCHR web site here (Word format). It is a sober and comprehensive treatment of many aspects of the criminal justice system that gives credit where credit is due but pulls no punches.

For those who don't have Word, here is the report in PDF format: Download nowak_report.pdf

April issue of CECC newsletter now available

The April 2006 issue of China Human Rights and Rule of Law Update, the newsletter of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, is now available here. Readers in China, click here: Download cecc_newsletter.pdf