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1 1 (January 17, 2002)

handle is hein.crs/crsiwsaaacv0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Order Code RS20139 Updated January 17, 2002 China and the World Trade Organization Wayne M. Morrison Specialist in International Trade and Finance Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division Summary China has sought over the past several years to become a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the international agency that administers multilateral trade rules. China's WTO membership (as well as that of Taiwan's) was formally approved at the WTO Ministerial Conference in Doha, Qatar in November 2001. On December 11, 2001, China officially became a WTO member. WTO membership will require China to significantly liberalize its trade and investment regimes, which could produce significant new commercial opportunities for U.S. businesses. A main concern for Congress is to ensure that China fully complies with its WTO commitments. This report will be updated as events warrant. After 15 years of bilateral and multilateral negotiations, China formally entered the WTO on December 11, 2001. The negotiations on China's accession to the WTO focused on many Chinese practices that distort flows of trade to and from China, such as high tariffs and non-tariff barriers, restrictions on foreign investment, lack of national treatment for foreign firms, inadequate protection of intellectual property rights (IPR), and trade-distorting government subsidies. Membership in the WTO will require China to change many laws, institutions, and policies to bring them into conformity with international trade rules. The WTO Accession Process The rules forjoining the WTO are stated in the Agreement Establishing the WTO, which was signed on April 15, 1995, as part of the Final Act implementing the results of the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations. The Agreement provides that any state or separate customs territory may accede to the WTO on terms to be agreed between it and the WTO. It further provides that decisions on accession shall be taken by the Ministerial Conference (the highest authority in the WTO), which shall approve an agreement on the terms of accession by two-thirds majority.' 1 While WTO decisions on important matters such as accessions formally require a two-thirds majority, in practice, the WTO has relied on consensus to reach important decisions. Congressional Research Service + The Library of Congress CRS Report for Congress Received through the CRS Web

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