First Step in the Long March - Year One of China's WTO Accession

2002 was a banner year for China: it made its WTO debut; enjoyed soaring levels of foreign investment; and basked in the limelight of its successful bids for the Beijing 2008 Olympics and the Shanghai 2010 World Expo. But as 2002 drew to a close, it was China's efforts in implementing its commitments under the WTO agreements and the Protocol of Accession (Protocol) that were largely the focus of the international business community. Generally, China's WTO efforts have been lauded, but many have adopted a "wait and see" approach for 2003.

Trade of Goods

With the second round of tariff reductions as of January 1 2003, China has now reportedly cut its overall industrial tariffs to an average of 11.1%. But even in this area, implementation has not been without incident: China's attempt to condition tariff reductions for several types of IT products on the completion of an end-use certificate - a violation of the WTO Information Technology Agreement - is still under bilateral negotiation.