With the exception of Mexico and Switzerland, China has concluded bilateral negotiations with the 37 World Trade Organization (WTO) members that requested bilateral negotiations with China. After 14 years of continuous efforts, China is very likely to be admitted to the WTO this year or early next year.Top Chinese leaders regard the WTO accession as the second most important change in China's economic policy regime, following Deng Xiaoping's reform and open-door policy in the late 1970s. This change will undoubtedly have profound impacts on the future course of China's economic development. There are many discussions among academic and policy circles in China regarding the possible impacts. Some of them are very positive about the accession, since they believe any drawbacks of such move will be overwhelmed by the efficiency gains. As such, new growth impetus will be injected into China's reform and economic development, and China is expected to enter an entirely new development stage. However, some other people are worried that China's weak economic base, due to the unfinished transition from a planned to a market economy, would not be able to sustain the tremendous external shocks brought about by the entry to the WTO. They argue that the WTO accession will do more harm than good to the Chinese economy.
展开▼
