WTO Entry Brings Benefits to Non-State Firms

Experts attending a forum on development of non-state enterprises in the 21st century pointed out that China's pending accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) will bring four benefits to the non-state firms.

First, with the WTO membership, China will enjoy multilateral, unconditional and stable most-favored nation treatment from the WTO's 130 member countries. WTO will provide stable multilateral trade environment, ensure that Chinese exports are not affected by various political, historical and non-economic factors, avoid any discriminatory restriction on quantity and clear away disturbances of anti-dumping and anti-subsidy. Consequently, the export climate will be improved and exported be expanded.

Second, WTO entry will enable China to allocate resources rationally in the process of economic globalization and therefore obtain the comparative interests resulted from optimum distribution of resources. China's accession to the WTO will add 2.94 percentage points to the growth rate of China's gross domestic product (GDP), implying an additional 200 billion yuan increase in production value and employment opportunities for several million people.

Third, joining the WTO will benefit the development of China' s socialist market economy. A complete integration with the well established market economies in the world and a thorough removal of all the restrictions inherited from the planned economy that still hamper the development of productivity will give a powerful push to the restructuring of Chinese enterprises.

Last, WTO accession will help simplify the procedure for luring foreign capital and improve and reform the corresponding ways. Presently, Chinese laws and regulations are imperfect concerning introduction of foreign capital. Foreign investors are now granted favorable treatment that is beyond national treatment. As a result, domestic enterprises, especially non-state businesses, do not contend with their foreign rivals on an equal footing. This kind of situation will change after China's WTO entry.(Panorama)






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