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1 1 (April 2, 2002)

handle is hein.crs/crsiwsaaadd0001 and id is 1 raw text is: 
Order Code  RS20139
Updated  April 2, 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
                                                                (continued...)

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