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17 Temp. Int'l & Comp. L.J. 409 (2003)
The Three Big Rounds of U.S. Unilateralism versus WTO Multilateralism during the Last Decade: A Combined Analysis of the Great 1994 Sovereignty Debate, Section 301 Disputes (1998-2000), and Section 201 Disputes (2002-Present)

handle is hein.journals/tclj17 and id is 415 raw text is: THE THREE BIG ROUNDS OF U.S. UNILATERALISM VERSUS WTO MULTILATERALISM DURING THE LAST DECADE: A COMBINED ANALYSIS OF THE GREAT 1994 SOVEREIGNTY DEBATE, SECTION 301 DISPUTES (1998-2000), AND SECTION 201 DISPUTES (2002-PRESENT)* An Chen** I. INTRODUCTION At the turn of the twenty-first century, the development of economic globalization is accelerating and the interdependent relationship between nations is deepening. The World Trade Organization (WTO), the so-called Economic United Nations, has been in operation for more than nine years. In this context, the world trading system of global multilateralism is further strengthening. However, strong unilateralism, the adversary of global multilateralism, originating from the contemporary sole superpower, the United States, has not been ready to concede to the WTO multilateralism voluntarily. During the latest decade, this superpower has been persistently, and by hook or crook, imposing obstacles to impede the solidifying and strengthening of global multilateralism in hopes of maintaining its economic hegemonic status of unilateralism. Usually those unilateral behaviors are conducted under the camouflage of defending U.S. sovereignty, safeguarding U.S. interest, and enforcing U.S. law. New evidence of this is the mighty disturbance of the U.S. Trade Act's Section 2011 and the chain of disputes ignited by the United States in March of 2002 within the WTO, specifically in the area of the international steel trade. These disputes were collectively . On November 10, 2003, after this paper was written, the steel complaints against the United States were decided by the WTO Appellate Body, which upheld most of the Panel's conclusions that the U.S. measures were inconsistent with the WTO Safeguards Agreement and the 1994 GATT. Furthermore, note that the phrase The Great 1994 Sovereignty Debate, which is used throughout this paper to discuss a series of debates in the United States, derives from Professor John H. Jackson's article, The Great 1994 Sovereignty Debate: United States Acceptance and Implementation of the Uruguay Round Results, 36 COLUM. J. TRANSNAT'L L. 157, 162 (1997). These debates are often referred to as the Great Debate(s). .. Professor of Law, Xiamen University School of Law, Xiamen, China; Chairman of the Chinese Society of International Economic Law; International Arbitrator, P.R.C., International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) under the Washington Convention; Visiting Professor as Distinguished Asian Scholar-in-Residence, Northwestern School of Law, Lewis & Clark College, 1990-1991; Senior Visiting Scholar, Harvard Law School, 1981-1983; and Tutor to doctoral candidates on international law. I would like to thank Dr. Chen Huiping, Associate Professor of Law at Xiamen University School of Law, and Mr. Hongxing Cheng, a doctoral candidate at Xiamen University School of Law, for their kind help with the translation of this article. 1. See Section 201 of the Trade Act of 1974, 19 U.S.C. § 2251.

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