China in the World Trade Organization

ZELICOVICH, JULIETA

Routledge Encyclopedia of Chinese Studies

Routledge

Año: 2022; p. 1 - 8

: China became a member of the World Trade Organization in 2001, after a 15-years-long negotiation. Due to its accession commitments, it opened-up its economy, lowering its tariff rates and reforming the legal framework of its economy, with notorious effects over its trade performance. While during the first years it kept a low-profile in the organization, after 2008 it started to gain attention and to become more involved in the multilateral negotiations, the dispute settlement mechanism and the institutional dynamics. Although it developed an active diplomacy in support of the multilateral trade system, many characteristics of China´s involvement in the WTO have been deemed as a challenge for this organization. On the one hand, China’s particular economic model raised distress among those expecting a convergence to a liberal-economy after the accession to the WTO. On the other hand, the size of its market share combined with the defense that this country has made of the self-proclaimed “developing country” status, has provoked doubts about the effectiveness and fairness of the WTO. China’s participation in the WTO has changed the status quo, and aroused multiple concerns. This has in turn fostered the debate on WTO reform. While those who focus on the adaptation of China to the WTO resort to the preponderance of the convergence narratives and claim better tools to achieve it; those that suggest adapting the WTO to China put the accent on the idea of coexistence among diversity and on the caveats and warranties that this requires.