欧盟补贴反规避立法最早可追溯至1994年《反补贴条例》。[1]该条例指出,“尽管《补贴协定》未载有关于规避反补贴措施的规定,但此类规避措施的可能性与规避反倾销措施类似,尽管并不完全相同;因此在本条例中制定反规避规定是适当的。”实体规定方面,反规避制度仅适用于“从第三国进口的同类产品或其零部件”。“规避”须满足四大要件:欧盟与第三国之间的贸易模式发生改变;导致此种改变的做法、方法或工作(practice, process or work)除征收反补贴税外没有足够的正当理由或者经济合理性(due cause or economic justification);就同类产品的数量和价格而言,反补贴措施的救济效果正在遭到破坏;进口产品或其零部件仍然得益于补贴。程序规定方面,仅规定了依申请启动的方式。豁免机制方面,进口产品如获得宣告不构成规避的海关证书,即可免于反规避调查。
将第三国装配作业纳入补贴反规避范围,核心是将《反倾销条例》中的反规避规定类推适用于补贴反规避。而类推适用的核心和关键在于类似性的判定。判定能否类推适用包括三个步骤:首先,适用主体必须证明该法存在立法上的漏洞;其次,类推适用不违反上位法;最后,必须确定案件与原规则范围之间的相关相似性。[11]这些步骤的判定是渐进式(step by step)的,因而,如果不满足前面的要点,后面的要点则无审查之必要。为保证说理的完整性,以下仍将从三个方面逐一分析补贴反规避与倾销反规避能否类推适用:
Abstract: The EU anti-circumvention of countervailing rules usually applies to three kinds of typical circumvention practices, such as third-country transshipment, slight modification of products and circumvention of sales channels. In response to the cross-border subsidies of FDI in the context of the Belt and Road Initiative, the EU has increasingly used subsidy anti-circumvention tools and included the circumvention of assembly operations in third countries in its scope of adjustment. The rationality and legality of including assembly operations in third countries in the scope of subsidy anti-circumvention have great doubts. The expansion of application of EU anti-circumvention of countervailing will have a certain negative impact on China's implementation of the “Belt and Road” initiative and the overseas direct investment of Chinese enterprises. The Chinese government and enterprises should question the legitimacy of the new practice of EU anti-circumvention of countervailing, and promote the construction of fair and reasonable anti-circumvention of countervailing discipline under the background of WTO reform.
Keywords: The “Belt and Road” Initiative; EU Anti-circumvention of Countervailing; Overseas Direct Investment; Cross-Border Subsidies