China's Accession to WTO and Participation in Economic Globalization

----Speech at the Luncheon of the 21st Century Forum by Minister for Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation
SHI Guangsheng
(June 16th, 2000)
Respected Mr. Chairman,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
In the new millennium, the issue of development has caught redoubled attention from various countries in the world. Facing the new century, CPPCC has invited people of insight in all walks of life at home and abroad to conduct discussions on the theme of Economic Globalization, which is of great significance to the expansion of consensus, strengthening of cooperation and promotion of development. I would like to avail myself of this opportunity to brief you on China's accession to WTO and participation in economic globalization.
China's entry into the WTO has caught worldwide attention. Since last year, the negotiation process for China's accession has been obviously paced up. Among the 135 WTO members, 37 have requested for bilateral talks with China. Up to now, 32 members including US and EU have concluded negotiations and signed bilateral agreements with China. Mexico, Switzerland, Ecuador, Guatemala and Costa Rica are the members yet to clinch a deal with China. At present, relevant talks are being intensified and all the bilateral negotiations will be put to an end shortly. The tenth Working Party Meeting on China's accession will be convened in Geneva very soon, at which multilateral talks will be carried our for the Protocol on China's Entry into the WTO so as to eventually complete relevant legal procedures for China's accession. We believe it won't be long before China becomes a full member of WTO.
After its accession to the WTO, China's reform and opening drive will enter a new historic era. Joining the WTO is the requirement of our reform and opening up which is in the fundamental interest of China. Joining the WTO will enable China to conduct international trade and economic cooperation under the multilateral, stable and unconditional MFN principle provided by WTO members, thus cultivating a favorable international environment for the development of China's national economy and foreign economic and trade relations. Joining the WTO will further accelerate China's opening to the outside world and advance the establishment and perfection of the socialist market economic system. Joining the WTO will also quicken the industrial restructuring of China, let the advantageous industries get even stronger and uninterruptedly improve the quality and level of China's economic development.
Of course, while producing opportunities, accession to the WTO will also bring challenges to China. Because the overall economic development level of China is not very high, the reform of SOEs are yet to be finished, the international competitiveness of some trades is not strong enough and the laws and regulation system is not that complete to adapt to the demand of the modern market economy. After entering into the WTO, China's economic administration system will have to adapt to the changes and deserve further improvement. Some industries and enterprises may be affected to various degree and suffer from certain negative impact. However, through reform and opening up over the past 20 years, China's comprehensive strength has been constantly raised with much experience to respond to the complicated international economic situation accumulated and international competitiveness and ability to withstand the risks tremendously heightened. What's more, the deeper the reform and opening drive becomes, the stronger risk-resisting ability we will enjoy. Therefore, we have the determination and confidence that through the deepening of reform and opening wider to the outside world, we can turn pressure into motive force to take the challenges arisen from our accession to the WTO and enable the national economy to achieve new progress on a continuous basis.
China's accession to the WTO can promote not only the development of Chinese economy, but also that of the world economy and will inject new impetus into the progress of Asian economy and world economy. We are delighted to note that now the Southeast Asian countries have shaken off the shadow of the financial crisis in succession and returned to the track of development. In the coming 10 years, the world economy is likely to enter a new growing period with the increasing rate higher than that of the 1990s. China has a population of over 1.2 billion, it is the 7th largest economy in the world and the 9th biggest trading nation globally. For seven years in a row, China has been the developing country with the biggest amount of FDI utilization. For 2 decades and more, China's economy has demonstrated vigor and vitality with an annual average growth rate of 9.7%. China has become one of the countries that enjoy the highest economic growth speed in the world. China's entry into the WTO will provide unprecedented opportunities to the healthy development of China's economy, it will also make new contribution to the prosperity of the Asian economy or even the world economy.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Mankind is at the threshold of the 21st century, and driven by the revolution of science and technology, world economy is undergoing broad and profound changes. Currently, the new economy has just been unfolding, restructuring of the world economy has been speeded up, regional economy has been developing quickly and the economic globalization has been obviously paced up. Economic globalization is the objective trend of the economic development in the world today, featured by the free flow and optimized allocation of capital, technology, information and service in the global context, making the economic interdependence and interaction between various countries ever stronger, and has brought about new driving forces and opportunities for the economic development of all countries in the world. However nobody can deny the fact that under the circumstances where international economic new order is yet to be established and the difference of economic development level of all countries is fairly big, the benefits enjoyed by different countries from the process of economic globalization are not balanced. Compared with developed nations, developing countries are confronted with more pressure and challenges.
Facing the trend of accelerated economic globalization, we hold that all countries, in particular, developing countries should take active part in the economic globalization process, grasping the opportunities to develop ourselves, and at the same time, proceed from the actual situation of our respective countries and bring our own advantages into play, foster strengths and circumvent weaknesses to welcome the challenges of economic globalization.
After achieving its membership in the WTO, China will open wider to the outside world with a more active attitude, which constitutes an important step of China's energetic participation in the economic globalization. China will further open the market of trade in goods, trade in services and other areas, gradually advance the opening up of commerce, foreign trade, finance, insurance, securities, telecommunication, tourism, intermediary services and other fields. China has a huge market with big potential and wide prospect. With the ever deepening of China's opening drive and the ever improvement of our economic strength, Chinese economy will be more closely linked to the world economy, the huge market potential that China enjoys will be turned into realistic purchasing ability and more business opportunities will be provided to industrial and commercial communities of all countries in the world. I believe that the Chinese market will become one of the most energetic markets of vitality in the world, and an important component of the world market that allows no negligence.
After entry into the WTO, China will undertake correspondent obligations while enjoying rights according to the principle of balance between obligations and rights. This is a very important reflection of the active participation by China in the economic globalization. As a big responsible nation, China will strictly abide by the WTO rules and honor its commitments. At present, China is, in line with the WTO rules and the requirement of establishing socialist market economic system, conducting a thorough checking-up of the laws and regulations concerning foreign trade and economic cooperation and will make amendment and addition according to the legal procedures, speeding up the establishment and improvement of the foreign-related economic administration system in conformity with the international practice, pushing forward the economic restructuring and the industrial up-grading, spreading the knowledge and the rules regarding the WTO, promoting the training of talents, so as to continuously improve the macro regulatory and control ability of the government as well as the international competitiveness of enterprises and therefore get well prepared for the more fierce international competition.
After entry into the WTO, China will play a constructive role in the formulation and perfecting the multilateral rules, which is a very important content of China's involvement in the economic globalization. China will take active part in the new round of WTO negotiations. China holds that, the new round of negotiations should reflect interests and requirements of the developed countries as well as those of the developing countries; the developed nations should earnestly implement their obligations committed in the Uruguay Round Agreement and improve the environment of market access for developing countries; the formulation of new trade rules should have the equal participation of developing countries and their economic development objectives and corresponding market opening model should be taken into careful consideration, the new round of multilateral trade negotiations should concentrate on the issues directly related to trade. China is willing to join hands with other WTO member to actively promote the establishment of a fair, reasonable international economic new order in order to let more countries including the developing ones share the opportunities and benefits brought about by the multilateral trading system and therefore realize the balance of interests and common development.
China will enthusiastically implement the "going global" opening strategy, which is an important measure of China's active participation in the economic globalization. Over the past 20 years, China's opening up has been dominated by "attracting foreign investment", namely to promote the constant development of economy through intensive attraction of foreign capital, introduction of foreign technology and managerial experience. With the strengthened economic power and raise level of opening up of China, we will encourage Chinese enterprises to go global, better utilize international and domestic resources and markets, and realize the integration and combination of "attracting foreign investment" and "going global". The implementation of the "going global" opening strategy will not only be helpful for China to explore economic development from a global perspective, take more active part in the international division of labor and cooperation on our own initiative, but also be conducive to the strengthening of economic relations between China and various countries in the world and promote the economic development of relevant countries and regions.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The evolving trend of economic globalization is a distinct characteristic of our time. Facing the new situation of the speedy development of economic globalization and China's promising accession to the WTO, we are ready to enhance economic and trade exchanges with all countries in the world under the principle of equality and mutual benefit, friendly consultation and common development, and make concerted efforts to contribute to the development of the world and the prosperity of mankind.
Translated by YUAN Yuan
Proofread by HUANG Rengang