The Future Of United States China Trade Relations And The Possible Accession Of China To The World Trade Organization

Witnesses: John J. Sweeney, AFL-CIO; George M. C. Fisher, Eastman Kodak Co. and Business Coalition for U.S.-China Trade; Harold "Terry" McGraw III, McGraw-Hill Companies and Emergency Committee for Amer. Trade; Frederick W. Smith, FDX Corp.; Robert A. Kapp, U.S.-China Business Council; Jack Valenti, Motion Picture Assoc. of Amer., Inc.; Sy Sternberg, N.Y. Life Insurance Co.; Neil E. Gambow, Jr., Post Glover Resistors Inc.; Steve Van Andel, U.S. Chamber of Commerce; George David, United Technologies Corp. and Business Coalition for U.S.-China Trade; and Steve Van Andel, Amway Corp. and U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

With China's accession to the World Trade Organization imminent, this book brings together the expert views of scholars, policy-makers and business representatives on the consequences of this historic event. Insight into the past and future of China's relationship to the WTO is offered by authors involved on both sides of the negotiations on the EU-China bilateral agreement of May 2000 and the on-going negotiations up to spring 2001. An analyst and representatives from four economic sectors (the automobile industry, telecommunications, insurance and banking) clash over their predictions for the future. Also presented is an investigation of the challenges for China's political, social and legal systems, and revealing prognoses are given for the implications for global trade and investment flows for the EU and Greater China, and for the modus operandi of the WTO itself. By shedding light on economic effects and social and legal implications, the book gives a comprehensive picture of potential challenges arising from China's entry to the WTO.

China's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) has been hailed as the biggest coming-out party in the history of capitalism. Its membership eventually will contribute to higher standards of living for its citizens and increased growth for its economy. But why would the Chinese communist regime voluntarily agree to comply with the many complex rules of the global trading system since it has already become the world's seventh largest trading country while avoiding these constraints by remaining outside the system? The answer to this question forms the basis for this new book. Nicholas Lardy explores the many pressures on the Chinese government, both external and internal, to comply with the standards of the rule-based international trading system. Lardy points out that, prior to entry into the WTO, China enjoyed high growth rates and more foreign direct investment than any other emerging economy. He draws on a wealth of scholarship and experience to explain how China's leadership expects to leverage the increased foreign competition inherent in its WTO commitments to accelerate its domestic economic reform program, leading to the shrinkage and transformation of inefficient, money-losing companies and hastening the development of a commercial credit culture in its banks. Lardy answers a number of other questions about China's new WTO membership, including its effects on bilateral trade with the United States; the possibility that China will use its power to reshape the WTO in the future; the degree to which the terms of China's entry were more or less demanding than those for other new members; the ability of China's economy to successfully open to new imports; and the prospects for new growth in various sectors of China's economy made possible by WTO accession. This book will become an important tool for those who wish to understand China's new role in the global trading system, to take advantage of the new opportunities for investment in China

Prospects for the accession of the People's Republic of China to the World Trade Organization in the near future have diminished considerably. Recently, many policymakers predicted that the PRC would most likely enter the WTO no later than 1999 or 2000. Given a variety of recent economic and political developments in both Asia and the West (particularly the United States), it now seems likely that the negotiations concerning China's accession will be much more protracted.

Seminar paper from the year 2003 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: International Organisations, grade: 1.6 (A), University of Manchester (Manchester School of Management), course: Manchester School of Management, language: English, abstract: What were the difficulties surrounding China’s accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO)? Why has it taken the People’s Republic of China (PRC) over 15 years to join? What are the expected benefits and disadvantages of joining? What changes is WTO membership likely to bring to China’s economy in the future? These are the question this paper will address. WTO accession by China is often seen as the most significant event about China in the last decade, even ahead of the Taiwan Independence issue, which continues to penetrate world news periodically. Since the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1978, China has been on a course of economic reform. Today, Chinese are richer than ever before in history, with the country itself having experienced extended periods of extraordinary growth. Specifically, this report will highlight China’s first attempts to join the WTO more than 15 years ago in chapter two. Chapter three will focus on the main areas of difficulty surrounding WTO accession, while chapter four will comment on the final accession in December 2001. The expected economic advantages and disadvantages for China will be discussed in chapter five; finally, chapter six will offer a brief future outlook for China, again mainly from an economic perspective.