法律翻译知识2.贸易体系的原则
2，Principlesof the Trading System
WTO为贸易政策建立框架，但并不决定或者具体规定结果。换言之，WTO关注的是贸易政策博弈规则的建立。要理解1994年之前的GATT以及之后的WTO，下述5个原则具有特殊的重要性：
The WTO established a framework for trade policies; itdose not define or specify outcomes. That is, it is concerned with setting therules of the trade policy games. Five principles are of particular importancein understanding both the pre-1994 GATT and the WTO.
（1）非歧视原则。非歧视原主要有两个部分:最惠国规则和国民待遇规则。这两个规则根植于WTO关于货物、服务和知识产权的主要规则之中。最惠国规则要求WTO成员必对其他全部WTO成员适用相同的条件，即“给予某一成员国特殊的优惠，也必须同样地给予其他全部WTO成员国”。国民待遇是指进口物品的待遇不应低于国内生产的物品的待遇。国民待遇(规则）的引人是为了消除贸易中的非关税壁垒(例如歧视性地针对进口商品的技术标准和安全标准。)
(1)Non-Discrimination. It has two major components:the most favorednation(MFN) rule, and the national treatment policy. Both are embedded in themain WTO rules on goods, services, and intellectual property The MFN rulerequires that a WTO member must apply the same conditions on all trade withother WTO members, i.e. “Grant someone a special favor and you have to do thesame for all other WTO members.” national treatment means that imported goodsshould be treated no less favorably than domestically produced goods and wasintroduced to tackle non-tariff barriers to trade(e.g. Technical standards andsecurity standards discriminating against imported goods).
（2）互惠原则。互惠原则反映出(GATT或WTO)限制最惠国规则可 能带来的搭便车范围的意愿和获得更好地进人外国市场的意愿。一个相关的问题是，对于一个参与谈判的国家而言，势必要看到坚持互惠原则可获得的利益大于从单边自由化中所获得的利益;而互惠性让步正可以实现这种利益。
(2)Reciprocity. It reflects both a desire to limit the scope offree-riding that may arise because of the MFN rule, and a desire to obtainbetter access to foreign markets. A related point is that for a nation tonegotiate, it is necessary that the gain from doing so be greater than the gainavailable from unilateral liberalization; reciprocal concessions intend toensure that such gains will materialize.
（3）具有约束力和可强制执行的承诺。WTO成员国在多边贸易谈判及加人WTO之时所作出的关税承诺，都会体现在关税减让表中。关税减让表确立“上限约束”:一个国家只有在与其贸易伙伴谈判之后才可改变其上限约束税率,这就意味着它要对其贸易伙伴的贸易损失进行补偿。如未得到补偿的，提起申诉的国家可以申请启动 WTO争端解决程序。
(3)Binding and enforceable commitments. The tariff commitments made by WTO members in a multilateral tradenegotiation and on accession are enumerated in a schedule(list)of concessions.These schedules establish’ceiling bindings”: a country can change its bindings,but only after negotiating with its trading partners, which could meancompensating them for loss of trade. If satisfaction is not obtained, thecomplaining country may invoke the WTO dispute settlement procedures.
（4）透明度原则。WTO成员国需公布其贸易法规，以便于对影响贸易的行政决定的审查，对其他成员国信需求作出回馈，还可向WTO通告其贸易政策的改变。通过《贸易政策审议机制》发布的定期国别报告（贸易政策审查报告)是对上述国内透明度要求的补充和促进。WTO体系也在努力地提高可预见性和稳定性，不鼓励使用配额和其他限制进口数量的措施。
(4)Transparency. The WTOmembers are required to publish their trade regulations for the review ofadministrative decisions affecting trade, to respond to requests forinformation by other members, and to notify changes in trade policies to theWTO. These internal transparency requirements are supplemented and facilitatedby periodic country-specific reports(trade policy reviews) through the TradePolicy Review Mechanism(TPRM). The WTO system tries also to improvepredictability and stability, discouraging the use of quotas and other measuresused to set limits on quantities of imports.
（5）“安全阀”原则。在特定的条件下，政府可以限制贸易。这方面条文有三种类型:利用贸易措施实现非经济目标的条款；确保“公平竞争”的条款;出于经济原因而允许干涉贸易的规定。最惠国原则的例外规定了对发展中国家的优惠待遇、地区性自由贸易区和关税联盟等情形。
(5)Safety valves. In specificcircumstances, governments are able to restrict trade. There are three types ofprovisions in this direction: articles allowing for the use of trade measuresto attain noneconomic objectives; articles aimed at ensuring” fair competition”;andprovisions permitting intervention in trade for economic reasons. Exceptions tothe MFN principle also allow for preferential treatment of developingcountries, regional free trade areas and customs unions.
