China makes a good score as a new WTO member

Fourth years has passed since China became the 143rd member of the World Trade Organization on Dec. 11, 2001. Taking the stock, China has done a very good job in honoring its commitments on WTO.

High marks on scoreboard

In the first year of China's WTO membership, the challenges were the issue that mattered. Whether and how China honor its WTO commitments was the most concerned in the second and third year of membership. China had to live up to all the expectations since 2005.

Ren Yifeng, Vice Secretary-General of China Society of WTO Studies, sings highly of China's performance of WTO membership, quote: " I should say, if I am asked to give a score, 80 to 90 marks is fair."

The 148 WTO members basically have agreed in their annual review (known as the Transitional Review Mechanism) that China had done a very good job as a new member. In September this year, Pascal Lamy, Director-General of WTO, lauded China's "important role in contributing to the expansion of the global economy." "Members are encouraged by China's implementation of its WTO commitments which are now in a decisive phase", said Lamy.

Keeping opening up

China has kept making progress on tariff cuts and opening its service market over the four years. China's general tariff has been reduced to 9.9 percent from 15.3 percent in pre-WTO age after tariff cuts were down to 12.7 percent in 2002, 11 percent in 2003 and 10.4 percent in 2004. This means China has brought its tariffs down to less than 10 percent ahead of schedule. Duties on farm goods, in particular have been slashed to 15.3 percent from 23.2 percent on average before the WTO accession.

China has made vigorous efforts on opening its service market. Take the banking sector as an example. 173 banks from 40 countries and regions had set up 238 offices in China by the end of October. That was 24 operations more than the pre-WTO period. In addition, 71 foreign banks from 20 countries and regions had set up 238 operations in China, 43 more than the pre-WTO period.

China's trade volume has been rising sharply over the four years. China's imports reached 561.38 billion USD in 2004, soaring 36 percent over the year 2003 which witnessed an 39.9 percent increase to 412.8 billion USD over 2002's 295.2 billion USD, 21.1 percent higher than 2001. China has become the world's third largest trader for the first time. Its trade volume in 2005 is expected to come to a milestone - 1.4 trillion USD.

China has also made unprecedented steps toward improving the compliance of its legal system with the WTO rules. Over the four years China has revised more than 2,000 laws and regulations, and annulled more than 800 rules as well.

China' s role in WTO

As a new WTO member and a developing nation gaining ground in the world economy, China's role in WTO is eye-catching.

China seeks to have more say on formulating WTO rules. In its debut at the Ministerial Conference in Cancun in 2003, China showed its persistency both in securing its own national interest and the interest of the whole developing world and in advancing the talks on Doha Development Agenda.

China, together with other developing nations in the Group20, has played a constructive role in the Doha talks. The G20 has become a major force that weighs with this round of negotiations on agricultural trade. In July this year, China hosted the WTO Mini-Ministerial Conference in Dalian where the G20 tabled a proposal for agricultural trade. A trade-off between the EU's offer and the US', the proposal seems most hopefully acceptable.

At the beginning of November Vice Commerce Minister Yi Xiaozhun put the idea of "early harvest" before WTO in Geneva, which has been included in the draft statement for the Sixth Ministerial Conference (MC6) to be held in Hong Kong on Dec. 13. The concept of "good harvest" means to focus the discussion at MC6 on specific issues on which consensus are most likely to be reached. These issues may involve trade facilitation, public health, intellectual property rights, and exemption of the least developed countries from duties and quotas.

By People's Daily Online