The Application Dilemma and Optimization Path of RCEP Dispute Settlement Mechanism

Abstract

On January 1, 2022, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP), one of the world's largest free trade agreements, came into force. In order to breakthrough the dilemma faced by the current WTO dispute settlement mechanism, Chapter 19 of the RCEP sets up a particular international dispute settlement mechanism, providing global trade governance. This has injected new vitality into global trade governance. However, due to various reasons, the RCEP dispute settlement mechanism still has applicable dilemmas including the absence of a dispute management body, the inadequacy of dealing with disputes in the digital economy, and the absence of a special investor-state investment dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism. Meanwhile, the participation of third parties in disputes may also bring problems in the actual operation and affect the efficiency of dispute settlement. These problems will affect the accomplishment of the RCEP objectives. Through the legal norm analysis method, specific solution measures are proposed for the optimization path of RCEP dispute settlement mechanism. There have some useful measures for parties to improve the dispute settlement mechanism, such as strengthening the governance in regional trade agreements, decreasing the differences in the interpretation and focusing on setting up a dispute management body.