China has been a faithful WTO promise keeper, not breacher
Print Edition
Over the past two decades since China鈥檚 accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), some rabble-rousing Western countries have from time to time sought to flummox the global community by hyping up a myth that China has failed to honor its entry commitments.
It does not take rocket science to debunk those ill-founded, and sometimes deceptive, allegations. A simple comparison between China鈥檚 entry pledges, publicly listed on the website of the WTO, and China鈥檚 practices over the past 20 years can easily lead any objective minds to the solid conclusion that China, instead of being a breacher, has been a faithful keeper of its WTO promises.
In terms of opening its market, China has honored its commitments with concrete actions. The country鈥檚 overall tariff level has dropped to 7.4 percent from 15.3 percent in 2001, lower than the 9.8 percent the country promised when entering the world trade body.
China has also widely opened its market in the services industry. Relevant documents on China鈥檚 accession to the trade organization stipulated that 100 sub-sectors in nine categories needed to be opened by 2007. That is a level close to the average 108 sub-sectors of developed countries. Now, Beijing has opened nearly 120 sub-sectors, which means that China has over delivered in this regard.
To conform with the WTO rules, China has revised its laws, regulations and policies. Since 2001, more than 2,300 laws and regulations have been reviewed and revised by the central government in Beijing, and over 190,000 by local authorities.
On protecting intellectual property, China has set up intellectual property courts in more than a dozen cities countrywide. In addition, more efforts have been made to provide administrative and judicial protections.
China has also walked the talk in improving transparency. It has notified the WTO in a timely manner of the adjustment and implementation of its legislation, as well as of laws and regulations. The number of notifications has exceeded 1,000.
China鈥檚 actions have been acknowledged by several directors-general of the WTO and most of the organization鈥檚 members. Pascal Lamy, a former WTO director-general, acknowledged that China has delivered an 鈥淎-plus performance鈥 since its WTO accession.
In fact, the so-called 鈥淐hina commitments鈥 those Western demagogues talk about are either fabricated or misinterpreted and China鈥檚 proven track-record deliberately twisted or even ignored.
For example, some from the West have criticized China for keeping certain areas off-limits to foreign investments, and cited this as a proof of China鈥檚 falling short of its promises. The fact is that the WTO has no regulations for these areas, not to mention 鈥淐hina commitments.鈥 Many countries have similar prohibitions or restrictions in these areas as well.
Obviously, when some Western countries try to spread their lies regarding China鈥檚 failure to honor its commitments, they are actually saying 鈥淐hina does not serve my interests well.鈥 They care little about what China really promised in 2001, but much about how to manipulate the facts to best serve their interests.
Actually, after honoring all its entry commitments, China has further opened up its marketplace as it understands that sharing its development opportunities with the wider world can greatly sustain its growth momentum.
As the world economy is still grappling with fierce headwinds of anti-globalization and major obstacles resulting from the pandemic, those Western countries should stop smearing China鈥檚 WTO records.
The author is a Xinhua writer.
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