What will WTO membership mean for China and its trading partners?
On December 11, 2001, after 15 years of arduous negotiations, China became the 143rd member of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The opening of an economy as large as China’s can be disruptive to some developing countries in the short run, but, in the long run, it should benefit not only China but also its trading partners. CHINA began to open up its economy in the late 1970s. In the early 1980s, it took steps to end its isolation, assuming the membership of Taiwan Province of China in the IMF and the World Bank, of which it had been one of the founding members. By 1986, it had launched a campaign to resume its contracting party status in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), from which it withdrew in 1950. As China moved from a centrally…
