Promoting Global Economic Growth

Since joining the WTO China has worked even more strenuously to achieve import-export balance. From 2001 to 2010 it expanded its imports fivefold, with the annual worth of imported goods approaching US $750 billion, creating 14 million jobs for its trading partners. China is now the biggest export market for countries and regions including Japan, South Korea, ASEAN, Australia and South Africa. It is also the second largest export market for EU and the third largest for the U.S.

After the 2008 financial crisis China launched a raft of measures to spur economic growth and stabilize the exports while expanding domestic demand. It was the only major economy in the world to see increased imports in 2009, which gave support to countries stumbling in the worsening economic meltdown.

What's more, China is giving much needed assistance to the least developed countries by ramping up imports from them. Starting in 2001 China has granted zero tariff treatment to certain imports from the world's 41 least developed countries designated by the UN, and is steadily extending the scope of duty-free commodities. It is among the first developing countries in doing so. The WTO figures show that over the past decade Chinese imports from the world's least developed nations gained by a yearly average of 27 percent, hitting US $43.3 billion in 2010. China has remained their largest export market for three successive years since 2008, taking in one fourth of their exports.

Striving for a Fair and Open International Trade System

As a member of the WTO China is committed to helping improve the fairness and openness of the international trade system. Its involvement in the organization deepened when it signed the Information Technology Agreement (ITA) in 2003 and applied to join the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA) in 2007. Meanwhile, China has been active in the institutional affairs of the WTO, recommending candidates for members of the Appellate Body and chairpersons of relevant committees. China made multiple donations to the Doha Development Agenda Global Trust Fund (DDAGTF) as part of its support for Aid for Trade, which is designed to help developing countries, in particular least developed countries, expand their trade.

Though a developing country and a new member of the WTO, China is a steadfast advocate for continuing the Doha Round so that it can play a constructive role in establishing a healthy multilateral trade system, and is actively reaching for all parties to end the impasse. China has presented over 100 proposals for talks at the technical level, and made solid promise to cut custom duties. In 2009 it proposed the three negotiation guidelines of "respecting the mandate, locking the results and taking multilateral negotiations as the foundation," which were supported by most member countries of the WTO. At the WTO Hong Kong Ministerial Conference China played a key role in the adoption of some important resolutions, including providing duty-free and quota-free market access for products originating from least developed countries. At the 7th WTO Ministerial Conference in 2009 Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming called on the gathering to send a positive signal to the world struggling with a once-in-a-century economic crisis, a signal to "open up, advance and reform." At the WTO Mini-Ministerial Meeting in Davos last January the minister told participants that China is ready to collaborate with other WTO members in a practical and proactive manner so as to achieve a successful result from the Doha Round by the end of 2011.

YAO LING is a research fellow with the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation.