China has actively participated in WTO dispute settlement over the past decade. It was hoped that China's WTO accession and participation in WTO dispute settlement could provide an external force to further China's reform. Due chiefly to the expansionist trend of the WTO regime and China's non-market economy, party-state regime and highly politicized WTO accession strategy, WTO dispute settlement sometimes exerts effects on China that are beyond the area of trade. Although China is sensitive and vulnerable to such trade-plus effects, a case study of China's relevant WTO disputes shows that, in general, China has successfully accommodated such effects to date. Therefore, despite its positive role in helping China improve trade governance, WTO dispute settlement has insofar played a limited role in furthering non-trade reform in China.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

Special economic zones (SEZs) and regional trade agreements (RTAs) are frequently used by states as policy tools to promote economic development. As SEZs and RTAs overlap in geographical coverage and regulation areas and are implemented in parallel, they could create profound synergies. As there is no specialized international legal framework for SEZ regulation, and national SEZ laws seldom touch upon the synergy issue, SEZ regulation is largely left to RTAs at the international level. Yet, existing SEZ-related provisions in RTAs almost exclusively focus on trade in goods and appear insufficient in addressing the synergy issue—especially ‘new synergies’ created by ‘advanced SEZs’ and ‘deep RTAs’. To properly address the synergy issue, states should treat SEZ policy-making and RTA rule-making in a coordinated way and consider adopting a regional or multilateral approach in SEZ regulation.