Sino-US Trade Frictions on Non-Automatic Export Licensing Under the WTO

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Though fruitful, the World Trade Organization (WTO) Doha Round negotiations seem to be reaching a deadlock. It is hard to say when and how the next ministerial conference is to resume. The Doha Round negotiations look extremely difficult, especially with regard to more substantial issues, such as those concerning agricultural trade. This paper therefore attempts to introduce and analyze another, relatively rarely touched, issue in the WTO negotiations, that of non-automatic export licensing (NAEL). In the history of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the WTO forum these issues have been raised before, but divergence still exists in most fields. My argument is that these issues could serve as an alternative to current hot but difficult topics for the next round of negotiations in the WTO. Hopefully a new consensus on the disciplines as to some aspects of non-automatic export licensing is more likely to be achievable, and this would facilitate the further development of the WTO negotiations.