China's WTO Negotiation Process and its Implications

China's GATT/WTO accession process has been dynamic and complex, affected by the broad political and economic factors at both the international and the domestic levels, and by a complex intertwining of bilateral and multilateral negotiations. This paper attempts to review this 15-year-long negotiation by focusing on the correlation and interaction between three variables--international factors, bureaucratic politics, and societal factors--and the negotiation process. Among them, the author identifies the first two variables as the primary factors shaping negotiation positions, strategies and outcomes, while societal factors such as Congress, interest groups and the public media are also worth noting. They played a minor but growing role in China to affect the ebb and flow of the negotiation process. Furthermore, they functioned differently in the West and in China and these differences themselves also contributed to influencing the negotiation process.     

WTO与我国公共行政

加入 WTO的日期在日益临近,它对我国社会各方面的影响将是全面而深刻的,其中,就包括对我国公共行政的影响。加入 WTO,对我国公共行政的影响,主要体现在几个方面：为我国公共行政改革提供新的动力机制;要求切实转变政府职能,实现政企分开;推动公共行政向公平化发展;加强政府法制建设,实现依法行政;努力提高公共行政水平与能力;提高行政行为的透明度和公开性;实行开放行政。     

WTO and China's Financial Services Sector

Financial services, particularly securities markets, insurance and commercial banking, have played a crucial role in China's post-1978 economic reforms. China has so far established a market structure and a legal framework, and has a growing understanding of how financial services operate in the modern world economy. We will review China's progress in financial services reforms over the last 22 years, describe the commitments China has made to gain WTO entrance, and then evaluate the potential benefits and costs to China's financial sector of WTO accession. We conclude that even with the substantial challenges presented by greatly increased post-WTO foreign competition, China will benefit from the WTO because of a number of factors including a growing pool of well-trained personnel, lessons learned from domestic and foreign development experiences, increasing Chinese economic strength, and continual advancement of China's financial infrastructure.     

完善中国经贸法规,迎接入世

我国加入ＷＴＯ 的进程正在不断加快,然而我国的经贸法规在许多方面还面临诸多问题。如,有些法律与ＷＴＯ规则相冲突,甚至国内一些重要的法律还存在空白,因此,我们应尽快采取相应的对策,以免加入ＷＴＯ后,我国处于不利的环境。本文从加快修改,完善外经贸领域的法律;通过国内法律采取适当的贸易保护措施;充分适用ＷＴＯ的例外条款以及注重研究ＷＴＯ规则等几方面探讨了如何完善我国的经贸法规的问题。     

The Chinese Tobacco Industry Prepares for China's WTO Access

TOBACCO production is astate monopoly in China,and the medium-sized andsmall tobacco processingplants labor under great Pressureand work hard to survive amidstfierce domestic competition.Since the production and saleof cigarettes have always beenunder strict government controlin China, its tobacco processingplants have had no market experience, and consequently noknowledge of competition, risk,or market manipulation.However, problems have recently occurred within the Chinesetobacco industr…     

中国加入WTO的电子商务发展对策

全球经济一体化与电子商务关系的研究,对于认识中国加入WTO所带来的电子商务的发展是非常重要的.中国的经济竞争力要注入活力,就必须利用现代化的技术与思想来加速市场化进程,而加快发展电子商务对于加快我国改革开放,形成内外驱动力,迅速缩短与发达国家和地区的差距,实现跨越式发展,加快中国融入经济一体化进程将起到重要的作用.     

The Social and Political Implications of China's WTO Membership

China will join the WTO soon. This article does not question the rationale of China's decision to join the WTO; nor does it challenge the premise that, all in all, the potential benefits from WTO membership outweigh the potential costs, at least in the long term. Rather, it focuses on the social and political implications of China's WTO membership. It is assumed that even if WTO membership is potentially a productivity-enhancing move for China, the benefits and costs of such a change will not be evenly distributed. Unless there is a mechanism that can induce or force the winners to compensate the losers, distributive conflicts between the two groups will be inevitable. Such conflicts may weaken or even erode political support for globalization. Thus, to remain committed to globalization, the government of an open economy must play a role in redistributing gains and costs. The first section elaborates this analytical framework. The second section argues that Chinese reforms have changed from a win‐win game to a zero-sum game. As a result, China has turned itself from a relatively egalitarian society into one with huge and growing inequalities. The third section analyzes who will stand to win and lose when China joins the WTO. It predicts that precisely those social groups who have borne the costs of recent reforms will be hit hardest. More significantly, those losers happen to be the social groups that have long served as the political bases of the communist regime. WTO membership thus poses a challenge to the legitimacy of the Chinese government. The final section discusses the political implications of China's WTO membership.     

China's WTO Membership and the Non-Market Economy Status: discrimination and impediment to China's foreign trade

This article provides a Chinese perspective on the terms of China's WTO accession, highlighting the negative impact of some discriminatory conditions that China accepted in order to join the WTO on its foreign trade and global competitiveness in the last decade. The author uses the non-market economy status of China as a case study to support the argument that these discriminatory conditions imposed on China upon accession have not only impeded the healthy development of China's foreign trade, but also violated the ‘non-discrimination’ principle of the WTO.     

加入WTO与我国法制的现代化

WTO是迄今为止最为庞杂的综合性国际经济组织.它所确立的国际贸易自由化的制度,对推动国际经济的一体化具有巨大的作用.同时,它也为我国的经济法提供了一个基本框架,我们应当尽快适应这种法律环境,加强我国在国际市场上的竞争实力.     

China's good neighbor policy and its implications for Taiwan

Chinese leaders in recent years have been following a coherent policy toward Asia that emphasizes moderation and accommodation while preserving core PRC interests. China's prevailing ‘good neighbor’ policy approach—backed by improvement in US–China relations—provides important opportunities and challenges for Taiwan. It clearly inclines the PRC leaders to avoid more aggressive or harder‐line tactics in the mix of carrots and sticks that makes up China's recent approach toward Taiwan. To follow a more disruptive course would undermine the influence and advantage Beijing has been seeking with its ongoing moderate approach toward the United States and other Asian powers. The main challenge for Taiwan is how to deal with the current balance of carrots and sticks in China's policy. Much depends on the ability of Taiwan's leaders and populace to turn the prevailing balance in PRC policy to Taiwan's advantage. This presumably will involve reviving their economy, promoting effective governance and prudent defense, while consolidating relations with the United States and managing tensions in cross‐Strait relations to the advantage of Taiwan's future security and development. Unfortunately, there is no political consensus on Taiwan to mobilize domestic resources and opinion in a concerted effort to protect Taiwan's future as an entity independent of PRC control. Those outsiders who have followed with positive interest Taiwan's remarkable development over the past decades hope that Taiwan makes good use of the opportunities posed by China's good neighbor policy to adopt prudent and concrete measures beneficial to Taiwan's long range prospects.     

Challenges for WTO Implementation: Lessons from China's deep integration into an international trade regime

China's formal accession to the World Trade Organization begins a process of deep integration that will require the implementation, monitoring and enforcement of newly harmonized standards. This article identifies challenges in that deep integration process, drawing on data from China's ten-year struggle to implement, monitor and enforce international standards for the certification and marketing of organic agriculture products. The political economy of rural China is described as a fragmented entrepreneurial state in which officials use state authority to privilege market activity. This creates a set of structural barriers and elicits local state resistance to the implementation of international trade regimes. State entrepreneurs pursue alternative forms of compliance, disguise state participation in the market, and exploit their control over information, in an effort to resist monitoring and enforcement regimes.     

Implications of WTO Membership for China's State-owned Banks and the Management of Public Finances: Issues and strategies

WTO membership will dramatically change the environment within which China's financial institutions operate. It increases the urgency of many reforms, including the re-capitalization of state-owned commercial banks and the establishment of a healthy credit culture. The severe under-capitalization of state banks and many state enterprises is part of a growing domestic debt problem that cannot be solved through normal fiscal policy adjustments. It will require the sale or securitization of state assets on a much larger scale than has been undertaken so far. The approach that was taken by the government's four Asset Management Companies to non-performing loan clean-up in 1999 and 2000 was flawed and should not be repeated. State banks should play a larger role in absorbing their own accumulated losses. China should leverage its external financial strength for domestic financial clean up. If the balance of payments remains strong, a mild appreciation of the nominal exchange rate--when the risk of deflation has passed--may serve China's interest. A large and growing proportion of state assets is held in the form of non-tradable shares in partially privatized state companies. To protect state solvency, many of these shares will have to be made tradable and sold in the next 5-10 years. A further strengthening of the fiscal system, along with rapid development of domestic capital markets is essential. Breaking up some or all of the four large state-owned commercial banks into smaller units may facilitate their restructuring and eventual privatization.     

挑战与回应--跨国公司与国家主权

跨国公司是“利害双面体” ,在给世界各国带来利益的同时 ,也对主权国家的政治、经济、文化和科技主权构成了威胁和挑战。主权国家为了维护国家主权和国家利益 ,应积极地应对 ,进行技术创新 ,巩固信息主权 ;主动地“限制”政府管理权限 ,转变政府职能 ,增强本国企业和国家的竞争力 ;建构文化的主体意识 ,实现民族文化的现代化 ,从而编扎起一道防护跨国公司消解国家主权的“防火墙”。     

浅谈"入世"对公安边防工作的影响和对策

中国加入WTO将对公安边防工作产生深远的影响。公安边防工作应强化政权观念 ,以扎实有效地维护社会政治稳定 ;牢固树立“入世”观念 ,主动适应公安边防工作面临的新形势 ;牢固树立执法观念 ,大力提高依法办案水平 ;强化科技强警意识 ,注重公安边防信息网络建设和管理 ;构建良好的通关环境 ,为改革开放和经济建设提供高效的服务 ;以作风建设和正规化建设带动队伍建设 ,努力建设一支人民满意的公安边防队伍。     

The Rise of Neoclassical Economics and China's WTO Agreement with the United States in 1999

Drawing on the historical institutionalists’ emphasis on the effects of ideas on policy making, this paper focuses on the importance of economic ideas and ideologies on China's trade policy making with regard to the signing of the WTO agreement with the United States in 1999. The paper argues that trade liberalization in China was a result of top Chinese leaders’ embrace of neoclassical economic ideas which conceive a small role for the state in the marketplace, mainly as the regulator of the macro-economic environment and as the enforcer of the rule of law, rather than as a major player in the marketplace. Top Chinese leaders’ socialization with neoclassical economic ideas enabled them to forge a political consensus to link state-owned enterprise (SOE) reforms with speedy WTO accession and led to China's major concessions in WTO negotiations with the United States in 1999 which were inconceivable just a few years ago.     

入世与中国金融业的对策--薛求知教授访谈录

中国加入WTO的脚步越来越快,自改革开放以来,我国综合经济实力有了明显提高,各行各业都取得了长足的进步。金融业也在20年的改革开放历程中,从封闭逐步走向开放,并为经济体制改革的深化作出了重要贡献,但与成熟的市场经济国家相比,我们的金融业仍嫌稚嫩,加入WTO无疑是机遇和挑战并存。如何正确认识和分析可能面临的问题,是金融业迎接挑战的基本前提。有道是未雨绸缪,在上述认识基础上制定切实可行的应对策略,是面临挑战、谋求制胜的关键。围绕这一中心,本刊记者采访了复旦大学管理学院企业管理系系主任、博士生导师薛求知教…     

适应WTO规则不断完善我国农村环境法律制度

在WTO规则下,由于各国环境保护的限制,加之我国农村局部地区环境恶化,从而导致我国部分农产品出现质量问题,减少了出口并且难以进入国际市场。为此,我们应当加强我国农村环境立法,提高农产品质量,以消除环境壁垒对我国农产品出口的影响。     

试析国家主权让渡的主体和客体

在国家主权让渡中,国家作为主权的让渡者,可以称为主权让渡的主体,而对等国家、国际组织、跨国公司等则是主权让渡的受让者,可以称为主权让渡的客体。从国家作为主权让渡主体的角度看,国家有完全主权国家和不完全主权国家、发展中国家和发达国家、社会主义国家和资本主义国家之分,主权让渡主体的差异在很大程度上决定着主权让渡进程自身的发展。从对等国家、国际组织、跨国公司等作为主权让渡客体的角度看,它们以各自不同的组织形式、性质和职能担当起了在全球化时代国家职能的缺失部分,保证国际体系的正常运转。