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China secures entry to WTO
DOHA-China won admission Saturday to the World Trade
Organisation, securing an historic, unanimous approval from
WTO countries after 15 years of tortuous negotiations.
The chairman of the WTO conference, Qatari Economy Minister
Youssef Hussain Kamal, banged a gavel to officially mark the
WTO endorsement of Chinese membership. Delegates greeted the
decision with a standing ovation. No vote was required. A
consensus on China’s entry was assumed after no objections
from WTO members were raised to the proposal.
‘After 15 years of difficult negotiations, we finally came to
this historic moment,’ Chinese Trade Minister Shi Guangsheng
told a packed hall at the WTO ministerial conference in Doha,
Qatar.
Beijing will formally sign its accession documents Sunday
before ratifying the agreement. China becomes a full member of
the WTO only 30 days after ratification.
Countries in the 142-member WTO are hoping China — a market of
1.3 billion people — will give a shot in the arm to the world
economy, sliding towards recession after the September 11
suicide attacks in the United States shattered consumer
confidence.
China’ entry also has the potential to usher in change, even
painful upheaval, at home.
China made far-reaching concessions to gain admittance to the
global trading system, which it left in 1949 when the
communists took power.
Beijing has already agreed to eliminate all agricultural
export subsidies upon admission to the WTO — something the
European Union and Japan refuse even to countenance.
China is also to cut domestic agricultural support to 8.5 per
cent, well below the developing countries’ ceiling of 10 per
cent.
A senior US trade official, speaking on condition of
anonymity, said China was a voice for free trade that could
provide a new impetus for liberalisation among developing
nations.
‘One of our hopes is that, them having undertaken more
extensive commitments than let us say Bangladesh, that would
give them an interest in seeing developing countries undertake
broader commitments so that they are on a level playing
field,’ the official said. ‘That was one of the strategies in
the negotiation process.’
China had begun reforming its economy 23 years ago, the
official said, but he conceded that internal disagreements
festered within China over the benefits of free trade. ‘It is
true in all countries and I think in China the forces of
protection are considerable,’ he said. ‘That is one of the
great virtues of this agreement, it gives a leg up to the
liberalises.’
Analysts have also warned, however, that exposure to outside
competition could have unwanted social consequences, as
inefficient state companies shed workers and cut other costs
to keep up with their foreign rivals.
The US trade official cited estimates that 10 million people
in China who work in agriculture could be displaced as a
result of Beijing’s WTO concessions. US President George W.
Bush has formally given the final green light to China’s
accession, the White House announced Friday, with the
president certifying that Beijing’s entry terms were at least
equivalent to those agreed to in a 1999 Sino-US trade pact.
European Union Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy warned China
that its fellow WTO members would be watching to see if
Beijing honoured its commitments as a full member. ‘Just like
every member of the WTO, China will have to deliver on its
commitments, and we will be watching this very carefully,’
Lamy said in an interview published Friday in the
International Herald Tribune. But Beijing’s chief WTO
negotiator, Long Yongtu, has said China will stick by the
rules.
‘China has always been as good as its word,’ he said recently.
‘It is one of the most important ethical standards in China
that promises must be kept and action must be resolute.’
November 16, 2001
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