The 47th Session of the UNCITRAL finalized the draft Convention on Transparency in Treaty-based Investor-State Arbitration. It aims to provide a mechanism to allow the UNCITRAL Rules on Transparency to be applied to investment dispute arbitrations mandated by investment treaties concluded before April 1, 2014. This paper intends to examine these UNCITRAL Rules on Transparency and the draft Convention on Transparency. It is particularly in contrast with the relevant rules in the NAFTA, the U.S. Model BIT 2012 and the ICSID Rules 2006, to see if transparency can be enhanced in treaty-based investor-State arbitrations and to extrapolate the implications of the Rules on Transparency and the draft Convention for China’s strategy in BIT or FTA negotiations amid the trendy advancement of transparency standards.

From the twentieth century on, legalization process has been evident in international relations. As a core issue of international law and relation, dispute settlement between States has been evolving from its tit-for-tat strategy to diplomatic and then legal control. Based on the GATT DSP, the WTO DSM has achieved significant progress in legalization. In particular, as more DSM decision have been complied by member States, legalization process of trade dispute resolution via WTO is regarded promising. From the viewpoint of the legalization theory, in comparison to the GATT, the compliance of the WTO DSM’s decisions have become more precise. The WTO members have granted more authorities to its panel of the AB or DSB. It means that in the aspect of compliance of the WTO DSM’s decisions, the degree of delegation to the DSB has been lifted to a higher level.

Treaty interpretation is one of the most crucial roles of international dispute settlement bodies. They can decide the case in the most reasonable way by legally justified interpretation of treaty. In some cases of the WTO and the ICJ, there exist certain types of facts which closely relate to the evolution of the meaning of a term. This research compares the four ICJ cases to the two WTO cases in order to ascertain both similarities and dissimilarities of those cases. Significant is the dissimilarities concerning the related principle on the economic or environmental aspect enshrined in certain agreement. In the context of the WTO dispute settlement, the contemporary meaning could only be adoptable after adequately justifying treaty interpretation by means of the two-step semantic generic-related interpretative approach. Without the second step of principle-related analysis, problems may arise especially from the economic perspective.

On June 18, 2014, the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body adopted the Panel report on China – Anti-Dumping and Countervailing Duties on Certain Automobiles from the United States case. There are questions that are still left open or ambiguous, and some notable findings have been introduced. For the procedure, the major issues are whether the non-confidential summaries of data were sufficient to reasonably understand the information, the admissibility of the delayed letter from parties and whether the notice and registration of Investigation Authorities could justify the facts available for determination of Residual rates. As regards the substantive issues, the discussion focuses on whether there is a self-selection process to distort the domestic industry definition and the price comparability between subject imports and the domestic like product. By analyzing the arguments, evidences and reasoning in these regards, this review points out questions that still need future clarification.

As China’s 12-year experience in the WTO has induced an ambitious global vision so-called “New Silk Road Strategy,” its global status has leveled up to ‘G2’ of the world. In terms of global trade, consumers all over the world have gained much from cheap Chinese goods, and Chinese growth has provided a huge market for other countries’ exports. This paper briefly analyzes traditional issues concerning China’s cases in the WTO in such areas as goods and services, intellectual property, dispute settlement, multilateral and regional trade agreements. It also tackles China-related issues in the WTO including investment, competition, government procurement, trade finance, and labor and human rights. This paper concludes that China needs to be equipped with better enforcement of domestic rule of law and greater room for trade liberalization. Moreover, the WTO is expected to encourage and boost China’s economic growth and institutional development, while China will continue to pose both new opportunities and threats to the multilateral trading system.

The Korea-China Free Trade Agreement finally arrived at its preliminary settlement, in the 14th round of negotiations, held on November 10, 2014. This FTA is expected to function as an essential stepping-stone for future trilateral trade agreement between China, Japan and Korea. Further, it is anticipated to considerably contribute to shaping an integrated economic community for East Asia. Therefore, it assigns a diplomatic task of reconciling the speed of growth and harmonizing different systems of the three countries; it is beyond the matter of simple market invasion. This short paper aims to track the process to the settlement of the Agreement and analyze its sectorial substances, from the viewpoint of strategic and diplomatic dynamics in East Asia. The author thereby attempts to suggest a direction of future discussion towards joint subjects of cooperation.