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China’s Accession to the World Trade Organization Essay

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China’s Accession to the World Trade Organization

After almost 15 years of negotiations, China successfully entered the World Trade Organization on December 11, 2001. In less than three years since its accession, while China’s progress has been somewhat behind schedule, the country has made very significant changes that have helped transition it to a market economy and open the country to the multilateral trading system.

Following the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations, The World Trade Organization (WTO) was established in 1995 as the successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The WTO is an international organization that watches over trade relationships between nations dealing …show more content…

The working party, the organization that guides the country’s accession process and consists of all interested member governments, examines the country’s trade regime and finalizes the terms of the accession. This report, or protocol of accession, is presented to the WTO General Council for a two-thirds majority approval. The applicant is then able to join the organization (“Membership, alliances and bureaucracy”).

The accession process for China lasted almost 15 years and resulted in a 900-page protocol of accession (“WTO Ministerial Conference”). China had to make many important commitments to open its market and to offer a more predictable trade and foreign investment situation in order for it to better assimilate in the world economy. Some of the commitments made by China included the following:

• Eliminate dual pricing practices
• Provide non-discriminatory treatment to all WTO member countries
• Eliminate price controls used to protect domestic industries or service providers
• Revise and enact domestic laws to be in compliance with the WTO Agreement
• Make it possible for all enterprises to be able to import and export all goods throughout the customs territory (with limited exceptions) within three years
• Agree to not preserve or introduce export subsidies on agricultural products (“WTO successfully concludes negotiations”).

China committed to eventually eliminate trade

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