当前位置:文档之家› WTO_AND_CHINA

WTO_AND_CHINA

WTO_AND_CHINA
WTO_AND_CHINA

WTO and China

The most likely global currency scenario will involve a basket of multiple currencies, centered on the dollar, the euro, and the RENMINBI. A recent World Bank report also projects that six major emerging economies will account for more than HALF of all global growth by 2025.

China is a major topic for discussion amongst WTO members in 2011 as this year marks the country's 10th anniversary since entering into the world trade organization. The first 10 years of China's WTO membership has coincided with one of the country's fastest and best growth periods, and trade officials say the trade environment will become more open over the next ten.

As is known to all, after fifteen long years of hard negotiations, China became a formal member of the World Trade Organization on Dec.11; 2001.People may wonder whether it pays for China to devote such a lot of time and efforts for accession to the organization. So some knowledge

about the WTO as well as the opportunities it improvises and the challenges it poses to China is quite necessary.

The origin of the WTO can be traced back to the early post World War II years. To guard against the threat of trade wars, major trio trading nations sent their representatives to Havana in 1947 to create an International Trade Organization for the promotion of international trade. That objective was, however, not realized for controversy over the extensiveness of the powers of the proposed ITO, mainly for the refusal by the United States to ratify the charter of the stillborn organization ,Nevertheless, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade was formed as a conduit for multilateral negotiations on a ratify of international trade issues.

Headquartered in Geneva, GATT provides a framework within which international negotiations are conducted toward creating global trade rules and a consultative mechanism for resolving differences and setting disputes

under those rules. It also provides technical assistance to developing countries in the form of seminars and training courses on trade policy issues.

The general aims of GATT are the improvement of standards of living, full employment, a large and steadily growing volume of real income and effective demand, the full use of the world’s resources, and the expansion of production and international trade. It is the specific task of GATT to contribute to the attainment of these objectives through arrangements directs to the substantial reduction of tariffs and other trade barriers and to the elimination odd discrimination.

Initially, GATT consisted of only three basic parts .In part1the basic obligations which are to be fulfilled by the contracting parties are laid down-the most-favored nation clause and the schedules of tariff concessions Part 2 constitutes a code of fair trade and contains the essential trading rules of the Havana Charter.

Pare 3 deals with the applications, membership and withdrawal, amendments to the a Agreement and its relation to the Havana Charter.

In the years followed, the text of the General Agreement was revised, numerous amendments were reached relating mainly to the expansion of exports of less-developed countries and the Part4 was added. In the new part, the contracting parties agree that the attainment of the general aims is particularly urgent where less-developed countries are concerned. in the interest of the less-developed countries, endeavors must also be made to ensure the stabilization of commodity prices, better access to the markets of the developed countries, and the diminution of the burdens which the developing countries assume in the interest of their economic development.

The Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) is meant to assist developing countries in their economic development efforts. It was established in 1968 after years of endeavors by developing countries in the UNCTAD and the GATT. under the

system, developed countries grant developing countries do not have to reciprocate such favorable treatment to the developing countries. So the GSP is an important exception to the non-discriminate principle of MFN.

A number of tariff negotiating conferences were held under the auspices of GATT during the course of the year GATT was functioning. Altogether 8 rounds of protracted yet fruitful multilateral trade negotiations were held since GATT entered into force in 1947 till the end of 1993 when the last round, the Uruguay Round finally concluded. The cumulative effect of the 8 rounds realized substantial reduction of tariff rate by the developed countries fell from an average of over 40 percent to about 3 percent in 1995.

Despite GATT’s success in cording international trade policy, it is only an interim body without a fully defined national structure and with little legal enforcement power .So a big decision was made at the last Round to establish a permanent organization, the World Trade

organization, to take the place of GATT.

On january1,1995 the WTO established on the basis of the document signed before the conclusion of the Uruguay Round by the ministers of 97 countries started its operation and began its administrative work, taking over all the unfinished work left by GATT and continuing to carry out the agreements reached during the Uruguay Round. Being a new, improved replacement of Gantt, the WTO is a permanent international organization to which all the members of GATT automatically become members .it is the organization’s aim to facilitate the creation of an optimal environment for international trade and further strengthen the multilateral trading system.

The WTO has three major objectives :1.to promote free trade by encouraging members to adopt nondiscriminatory, predictable trade polices;2.To further reduce trade barriers though multilateral negotiation;3.To establish more effective trade barriers through

multilateral negotiation;3.To establish more effective trade dispute settlement procedures. Instead of being a more replacement of GATT, The WTO differs from its processor SEVERAL potent dimensions firstly, as the name suggests, the GATT is only an agreement, or more exactly an interim secretariat, rather than an organizational entity in the true sense, while the WTO is a full-fledged permanent organization, with the biennial ministerial meeting as its supreme decision-making body, affording it more political clout and a higher international profile. And its subsidiary bodies specialize in different areas .Secondly, the WTO has a much broader mandate .In addition to promoting commodity trade which used to be the focus of GATT, the WTO is also responsible for service trade, intentional intellectual property protection to promoting commodity trade which used to be the focus of GATT the WTO is also responsible for service trade ,international intellectual property prospection to and trade-responsible

for service trade ,international intellectual property protection and trade-related investment. Thirdly, the WTO has far greater enforcement mechanism. Its Verdict is binding on its entire member. In this respect the WTO is akin to an international court of justice for world trade with the institutional strength and legal mandate to implement its decisions.

China’s efforts to gain accession to the WTO can be divided into periods. During the GATT days, China made strenuous endeavors for the restoration of its status as a contracting party .Though the goal was not realized, the work laid some foundation for negotiations in the second period after the WTO come into being. At the turn of entry into the organization was a subject of topical interest. There were worries as well as great expectations. Now that several years have passed since China’s accession to the WTO, it is time to review China’s performance as a WTO member.

As a responsible large nation, China has been

doing a lot in honoring its commitments for entering the WTO. In a short span of several years, China amended over 2300 laws and regulations of which over 800 were abolished. The overall tariff level was lowered from about 40%to 10.5%. Non-tariff measures including quota and import license were removed step by step. The sector of service trade has been opened further and protection of intellectual property right considerably strengthened .All these efforts have produce positive results both for the other members of the WTO and for China itself who has made good use of the opportunities offered by the organization.

China’s total volume of import and export doubled from 500billion US dollars in 2001to over 1.1 trillion US dollars in 2004, ranking the third in the world, only after the United States and Germany. For three consecutive years, the country remained the largest recipient of foreign direct investment with the average yearly figure exceeding 50 billion US dollars, showing the

improvement of its investment environment in line with the requirement of the WTO .Country to the worry of some people that there would be trade deficit after entry into the WTO, China still enjoys a favorable balance of 12 billion US dollars. And China’s foreign exchange reserve increased to 550 billion US dollars, being the second largest foreign exchange reserve next only to that of Japan, The sensitive industries liable to the impact of the WTO entry such as agriculture, automobile, retail business, banking, insurance, and telecommunication all registered encouraging development.

Despite all the achievements, China still faces big challenges. The first is the protectionist measures prevalent in some countries. Among the anti-dumping investigations. With the complete removal of textile quotas from January ist, 2005antidumping ingestions against China will be further intensified, and we must get mentally prepared and endeavor to reduce the negative effects.

The second is the increasing competition faced by commercial banks and insurance enterprises from their foreign counterparts. The foreign banks already enjoy national treatment in China and they have offered over 100 items of services, tripping those by domestic banks .From Dec.1st,2004,the number of cities where foreign banks are allowed to handle Rimini business for enterprises increased from 13to 18.And from 2006Reminbi business for Indi duals will slosh be open to foreign bank. As for foreign insurance companies, all those entering the Chinese market are well-known enterprises with a long history and rich experience, constituting formidable competition against domestic insurance companies.

The third is the challenge faced by agriculture. China committed itself for entry into the WTO not to provide any export subsidy for its agricultural produce, and ultimately lower its import of bulk produce, but the quotas are fairly large and the tariff rates within the quotas are

as low as 1%to 10%.All those from great pressure on China’s agricultural production and market. Chinese name English name

Li Ming jian Barry

LuYang Lowei

XuYaqin Sharon

WangZhengjun Tony

ShiPeiye Smith

JiangTianzhen Isabella

相关主题
相关文档 最新文档