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WTO Accession

After 15 years of negotiations, China concluded all bilateral agreements on China's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) on 13 September 2001 after reaching an agreement with Mexico. On 17 September 2001, WTO's Working Party also successfully concluded negotiations on China's terms of membership of the WTO. During the WTO Ministerial Conference, China gained approval to join the WTO on 11 November 2001 in Doha, Qatar, and officially became a member on 11 December 2001.

  • Under China's WTO accession agreement, China has made very substantial market access commitments covering the agricultural, industrial and services sectors:
  • Phase-out of non-tariff barriers on imports - Import license requirements will be eliminated within five years of accession, and all quotas will be phased out within five years of accession.
  • Tariff cuts - average import tariffs for industrial products will be lowered from currently 14.8% to 8.9% by 2005, and average tariff for agricultural products will be cut to 15% by 2004.
  • Conditions on foreign investment - The WTO Agreement on Trade-related Investment Measures (TRIMs) will be implemented, requirements on trade and foreign-exchange balance, local content, and export performance will be ceased or eliminated.
  • Trading rights - China agrees to provide trading rights to foreign companies, to be progressively phased in over three years. Majority ownership in wholesale joint ventures will be allowed within 2 years of accession with no geographic or quantitative restriction by then. There will be no geographic, quantitative, equity/form of establishment restriction in retailing within 3 years of accession.
  • Open-up of other services - China has also agreed to relax foreign investment restrictions on many important services industries, including distribution services, telecommunications, financial services, professional services. For value-added services in telecommunications, foreign partners will be able to own up to 50% with no geographic restriction within 2 years after accession. For mobile voice and data services, foreign operators can own 25% upon accession, and rise to 35% one year after accession and further to 49% after 3 years. Foreign banks will be able to conduct local currency business with Chinese enterprises 2 years after joining the WTO, and all geographic and client restrictions will be removed within 5 years after accession. For non-life insurance, branch or JVs with 51% foreign ownership will be allowed upon accession. Wholly-owned subsidiaries will be allowed in 2 years. For life insurance, JVs with 50% foreign ownership will be allowed upon accession.

To ensure the US access to the Chinese market and facilitate China's WTO membership, the US government, on 10 October 2000, officially passed a bill to grant the Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) status to China. That means the US will no longer renew China's NTR status on an annual basis when China is a full member of WTO.

WTO Final Documents

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