| Saturday, November 10, 2001, updated at 19:50(GMT+8) |
China's WTO entry in sight: Hello, Doha |
 The 4th WTO Ministerial Conference, being convened in Doha of Qatar, is expected to give green line to China's accession tonight.
The pain of the wait will soon be over, leaving everyone to wonder what lies ahead after membership is finalized.
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China is just steps away from reaching the finish line of its 15-year World Trade Organization (WTO) membership marathon.
The 4th WTO Ministerial Conference, being convened in Doha of Qatar, is expected to give green line to China's accession tonight Beijing Time.
Earlier this week, the Chinese Government delegation arrived on Tuesday in Doha to attend the fourth Ministerial Conference of the WTO to be held this week. Right there, they found themselves beseiged by the army of reporters in town to cover the event. People were eager to know their true feeling.
Why all the fuss? Just because rigth at the conference, China is expected to be officially made a member of the WTO, bringing the world's fifth largest trading power -- after the United States, the European Union, Japan and Canada -- into the world's most important trade body. Long and Painful"I have been waiting so long to see the day," said Wu Jiahuang, former director of the Tariffs Department of the General Administration of Customs and a major negotiator for China's entry into the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1986.
He said: "At that time [1986] China was already a member of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. After we applied to enter GATT, many foreign officials such as the ambassador from the European Committee greeted us. We all thought that China would enter the organization within two years. However, we didn't."
The wait will be history soon. On September 16, a WTO working party approved an 800-page package of entry terms, clearing the way for China's admission by the end of this year. WTO spokesman Keith Rockwell, with top negotiators for the European Union and the United States, welcomed the end to what has been dubbed China's "Second Long March" after revolutionary leader Mao Zedong's epic crossing of the country in the 1930s. "It was long, and it was painful," said EU negotiator Karl Falkenberg, a man who has been involved in China-WTO talks for the past decade.
The pain of the wait will soon be over, leaving everyone to wonder what lies ahead after membership is finalized. Rise and FallSince last May, when China signed a bilateral agreement on WTO membership with the EU, office building rentals have been rising in Beijing. The citywide average price per square meter for office space has risen to US$20 a month from US$12 seven months ago.
According to CB Richard Ellis, a commercial real estate services company, China's entry into the WTO will boost the tertiary industries -- Internet, consultancy and financial -- which will in turn create greater demand for office space and drive up property values.
Located just 400 meters away from the Jing'an Center in Beijing, a building in which office rentals rose by 40 per cent to US$20 per square meter last July, French hypermarket chain Carrefour is cutting its sock prices by half in a desperate attempt to unload inventory. The socks, formerly priced at five yuan (60 cents) a pair, are now selling for two yuan, the Beijing Youth Daily reported in a recent article. The newspaper quoted Ma Lili, a sales worker at the supermarket, as saying: "Some sock factories want to sell out their socks in storehouse as early as possible, saying they are afraid that there will probably too many socks in storage after more foreign companies enter the market. The discounted socks are really selling well."
Experts have suggested the textile industry might face a challenge after China enters the WTO. Although membership will certainly allow China to increase exports of domestic textile products, observers have suggested the textile-exporting giant will no longer be able to rely solely on the low cost of its textiles and will therefore need to concentrate on high quality products and good service.
Other industries will also need to face the WTO challenge. Long Yongtu, China's chief WTO negotiator, urged Chinese businesses and governments at all levels to adjust their mentalities and take action in light of China's fast-approaching admission into the trade group.
"[Membership] will bring Chinese businesses both opportunities and challenges," Long said. "Manufacturers should have awareness of globalization and pay close attention to changes in state of world affairs, especially economic affairs," Long said, emphasizing that there is no need to worry or panic as the changes will occur step-by-step. Businesses will have enough time to take action, he insisted.
In preparation for its WTO membership, China has reduced average tariffs by 6.6 per cent since January 1, cutting its overall import tariff levels from 16.4 per cent to 15.3 per cent from January 1 this year.
One of the most dramatic tariff reductions planned for the future will come in the car sector. After it enters the WTO, China will gradually cut auto import tariffs from the current 100 or 80 per cent to 25 per cent by 2006, with the largest cuts in the first years after accession.
The Chinese government is also changing investment rules in order to comply with WTO standards.
In the telecom sector, China will allow 50 per cent foreign ownership in enterprises that provide value-added services within two years. Foreign ownership will be allowed to climb to 49 per cent within five years for mobile and data service providers.
Changes will also occur in the securities sector. China plans to allow minority foreign owned joint ventures to pursue fund management activities on the same terms as Chinese firms.
Other sectors, including financial, insurance and banking, will open to some extent as well after China enters the trade body.
China is revising a whole host of laws and regulations -- not just in the realms of investement and tariffs, but across the economic board -- to bring its economic legal system in line with the World Trade Organization's expectations.
Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji has been optimistic about the changes. "With the WTO as an external force to keep pushing reform in China, the economy in China will function more efficiently," he said. Win-Win For AllCharlene Barshefsky, a former US trade representative, said on Tuesday that China's entry into the WTO was "extremely important" to the global community.
China's entry into the global system will "be a globally important underpinning for the US-China bilateral relationship," Barshefsky said.
She said that economic growth and economic interaction "encourages not only prosperity for countries that trade together, but also encourages stability and peace." She urged developed countries to open their markets more rapidly than the developing countries.
At the fifth leaders' meeting between, Zhu dismissed any concerns about China's membership in the WTO by saying, simply, "WTO entry is win-win for all."
Source: chinadaily.com.cn
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