China and the WTO analyzes the nature of the reforms involved in Chinas accession to the WTO, assesses their implications for the world economy, and examines the implications for individual households, particularly the poor. Its key objective is to provide the information that will allow policy makers to implement WTO commitments and formulate supporting policies to contribute strongly to economic development and poverty reduction.

Abstract: China's accession to the WTO requires a great many specific policy reforms. However, if the best results are to be obtained, it is important that these reforms be implemented as part of a consistent development program, rather than simply by treating them as a recipe.

To do this, policy makers must understand the range and nature of the policy changes required by accession, their implications for the economy, and the availability and effects of supporting policies. "China and the WTO" analyzes the nature of the reforms involved in China's accession to the WTO, assesses their implications for the world economy, and examines the implications for individual households, particularly the poor. Its key objective is to provide the information that will allow policy makers to implement WTO commitments and formulate supporting policies to contribute strongly to economic development and poverty reduction. Individual chapters by leading scholars analyze the nature of the reforms in key areas, such as agriculture, services, intellectual property and safeguards and anti-dumping.

These chapters form the building blocks for later chapters, which analyze the implications of reform for the economy. The book also includes a series of studies that assess the implications for households, taking into account the social safety net policies applying in China, and the impacts of complementary policies in areas such as labor market reform and investments in human capital.

Download China and the WTO

China and the WTO: Accession, Policy Reform, and Poverty Reduction Strategies

Editors: Deepak Bhattasali • Shantong Li • Will Martin

PDF format, 6.2MB, 352Pages.

This book fills a large gap in the analysis of China’s WTO accession. Evidence-based investigations of the likely effect of further opening of China’s economy, following the steady globalization that had occurred since 1979, have been largely unavailable.

Moreover, the strategic dimensions of the policy changes implemented by China’s far-seeing leaders have not been addressed adequately until now, and not as thoroughly as in this book. This collection of first-rate technical studies, drawn from good understanding of Chinese and international economic institutions, and tracing the likely effects of China’s globalization on different segments of its economy — especially its poor — is essential reading for students of public policy.”

Long Yongtu, Secretary General, BOAO Forum for Asia

“This book provides the most comprehensive and up-to-date evaluation of China’s entry into the WTO. It provides a succinct summary of China’s commitments to the WTO and a detailed analysis of the economic consequences of the fulfillment of these obligations. A particular strength of the volume is its treatment of the relationship between trade liberalization and the distribution of income in China.”

Nicholas R. Lardy, Senior Fellow, Institute for International Economics

Visit China and the WTO World Bank Official Web Page

Forward:

China’s era of reform has seen enormous progress in reducing poverty at the same time as increasing integration with the world economy. The process of accession to the WTO contributed to a decisive deepening of the process of integration with the world and a move to a much stronger emphasis on rules-based reform. However, in recent years, there has been increasing concern about an increase in inequality within China and a rising gap between the fortunes of urban and rural families.

The aim of the project on which this book is based was to bring together information on the implications of China’s WTO accession agreement— an enormous and complex watershed agreement—and to assess the overall impacts for householdsthroughout China. This required the collection of information and the analysis of the policy reforms involved in the accession agreement, followed by an assessment of the effects of these policies on the major elements of the economy. Finally, drawing on this analysis, the impact of the reforms on individual households—and especially those of the poor—was evaluated. The results of the analysis provide a basis for recommending policies to capitalize on the benefits resulting from accession and to mitigate the adverse impacts.

The work on which this book is based has been disseminated in China through numerous presentations and seminars and through inputs into a number of training courses undertaken by the World Bank Institute and partner organizations in different parts of China. This book will provide a lasting reference to this major step in the evolution
of the Chinese economy.

This book is the result of a number of years of work by a team of Chinese and foreign scholars. Just as China and her trading partners have benefited from the win-win nature of international trade, members of this team have benefited from one another’s knowledge and understanding of different facets of this enormously complex and dynamic economy. The work is testimony to the success of the partnership between the World Bank and the Development Research Centre of State Council—a partnership that has contributed a great deal to both of our organizations. We look forward to even stronger cooperation between our two organizations in the future, as China enters the next phase of development.

François Bourguignon
Senior Vice President and Chief Economist
The World Bank

Wang Mengkui
Director
Development Research Centre of State Council

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