September 2004
Three Years In The WTO: Could Be Worse
China’s entry into the World Trade Organization on 11 December 2001 was, on one level, the end of a tortuous 15-year negotiation process and a major milestone in China’s integration into the global economy. But it was merely the beginning of a lengthy process of overhauling not only China’s economic regulations, but also habits of business practice and government administration that are deeply engrained in Chinese culture.
In this issue, CEQ suggests that while progress in some areas remains frustratingly slow, WTO membership has generally given a boost to reformist elements in the Chinese government. Perhaps disconcertingly for its trade partners, China has also improved its export competitiveness across the board – not just in industry but also in agriculture, where China defied forecasts of a WTO-induced farm depression.
Probably the single most important issue in the next few years will be the outcome of China’s efforts to promote domestic standards, partly in order to shut out imports in certain industries but also to create domestically controlled technological IPR which will reverse China’s currently unfavorable terms of technological trade. This effort also bears on the eternally vexed question of China’s IPR enforcement: CEQ’s view is that China will never get serious about enforcing IPR until it has some intellectual property rights (IPR) of its own to protect.
Also in this issue:
Stephen M. Harner says banking reforms put China on the cusp of a financial revolution
Arthur Kroeber recommends we all read a 400-year-old work of literary erotica