China should seize the opportunity that will come with entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) and prepare well for the upcoming challenges, says a front-page signed article in January 20's Economic Daily.

The correct attitude towards China's accession into the WTO is to know the situation well, seize the opportunity, and face the challenge, says the article entitled "WTO Needs China and China Needs WTO."

The article says two attitudes towards WTO entry should be guarded against -- becoming panicked by the challenges or becoming blindly self-satisfied by the opportunities WTO entry creates.

Officials and entrepreneurs should be well prepared when the challenges come, and the competitiveness of manufacturing industries, agriculture, and the service sectors must be improved.

In addition, the article says, relevant laws on foreign trade, overseas investment and the protection of intellectual property rights should be reassessed and revised, and new laws must be made so that China can face the challenges while undertaking the obligations.

The article says that the WTO needs China's membership and China needs to join the WTO. The WTO needs China's membership because of China's huge market potential and business opportunities, and because overseas capital, technology, and market resources will help accelerate the country's economic construction.

The Sino-US bilateral agreement on China's WTO accession reached last November, the article says, is a "win-win" deal satisfactory to both sides.

During the negotiations, China insisted on three principles for WTO entry, saying that the WTO is incomplete without the participation of China, the world's largest developing country, that China can only join as a developing country, and that China's rights and obligations as a WTO member should be given equal status.

The three principles stress that China should take the initiative and face economic globalization, make use of its advantages while avoiding harm, seize the opportunity for a better development environment, and safeguard China's national interests.

"China has, in the China-US bilateral agreement ...realized its set goal," the article says, adding that "The two sides have reached a win-win deal." (Xinhua)