China is celebrating the 20th anniversary of its entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) on December 11, 2001 after 15 years of negotiations. The nation would continue to reduce items on the negative list for foreign investment, and strengthen services and protection for foreign enterprises and related projects, Ministry of Commerce Spokesman Gao Feng said. With a constantly improving business environment governed by law that is up to international standards and market oriented, China hopes foreign investors will benefit from the country’s growth dividends, he added. Since joining the WTO, China has dramatically increased its exports to become the world’s undisputed champion in this field. Analysts said China will continue to contribute to global economic growth, especially at a time when industrial and supply chains worldwide are experiencing difficulties due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Tu Xinquan, Dean of the China Institute for WTO Studies at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, said, “China has benefited from its accession to the WTO, but more importantly, by joining the multilateral trading system, it has enhanced the operational efficiency of the world economy and improved the use of global resources, making a huge contribution to international economic growth.” China’s accession to the WTO enabled the nation to incorporate its own resources, including labor, land and natural assets, into the global economy at a much deeper level and on a much larger scale, accelerating the nation’s economic growth, Tu said.
Contributing nearly 30% on average to global economic growth over the past 20 years, China's international trade has grown six-fold since its accession to the WTO. Its share of global exports jumped from 4.3% to 15% from 2001 to 2020, while its import value rose from 3.9% to 11.7%. China's GDP jumped by 816.4%, and per capita GDP increased from CNY8,717 to CNY72,000, enabling it to have the world's largest middle-income population. To facilitate imports, China has lowered import tariffs for goods to 9.8% from 15.3% when it joined the WTO 20 years ago. At present, its overall import tax stands at 7.4%, lower than the average level of developing members of the WTO and it is approaching the level of developed members of the organization. The time to clear goods at Customs has also been greatly shortened. It now usually takes 36.7 hours for imports to be cleared, down 62.3% compared with 2017.
China has also widely opened its market in services. The WTO accession protocol and relevant working group reports stipulated that 100 sub-sectors in nine categories needed to be opened in 2007. Currently, China has opened nearly 120 sub-sectors, exceeding its commitments. The world’s sixth-largest economy when it joined the WTO, China has risen to become the second-largest. Over the past 20 years, China has risen from sixth place in the world to first for its trade in goods, and from 11th place to second for its trade in services. It has also become the world’s largest exporter and second-largest importer. With a population of 1.4 billion and a middle-income group of more than 400 million, China’s annual imports of goods and services are valued at about USD2.5 trillion.
Still, China is now facing the challenges of deglobalization, the persistent pandemic and looming climate change. Moreover, the U.S. is promoting protectionism and aims to convince countries within the WTO to contain China.
China's foreign trade in the first 11 months of this year rose 22% year-on-year to CNY35.39 trillion, surpassing the figure for the whole of last year. The trade figures are even more conspicuous in U.S. dollar terms amid the yuan's strength. The country's exports and imports rose 31.3% year-on-year to USD5.47 trillion in U.S. dollar terms. Growth in both exports and imports for November beat market estimates. In November, dollar-denominated exports registered a growth of 22%, while import growth hit 31.7%. The jump in imports in November was largely due to the China International Import Expo (CIIE) held at the beginning of the month and the steady basis of the Chinese economy, Bai Ming, Deputy Director of the International Market Research Institute at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, told the Global Times.
ASEAN maintained its position as China's largest trading partner, as trade with China rose 29.8% to USD789.53 billion in the January to November period. China's trade with the EU jumped by 29.2% to USD747.63 billion, while, trade with the U.S., China's third-largest trading partner, posted a surge of 30.2% to USD682.32 billion. In the first 11 months of 2021, China's exports to the U.S. increased 28.3% year-on-year, while imports grew 36.9%.
