China Will Further Cut Import Tariff; Reformation Is Prepared for Existing WTO S

Due to the influence of financial crisis, the life blood of import and export, namely, the trade financing becomes more and more difficult. The foreign trade protectionism increasingly occurred. As a great trade power under developing, China is given with great expectations for the recovery of global economy in the future.
 

Therefore, during the forum named as "Historical Selection of China's Reform and Opening Up: Entry into the WTO" held in Shanghai on November 21, Zhang Xiangchen, the permanent minister of Chinese mission to WTO, indicated that based on the general situation, China would continue to make the commitment on further opening up to the outside world. According to the current negotiation, China would cut the customs tariff of 20%-30% in the agriculture and non-agriculture fields.
 

As indicated by Zhang Xiangchen, China is a great trade power under developing and would firmly support the multilateral trade system. Though having made the commitment in depth during WTO negotiation, China will continue to make the commitment for further opening up in her compass.
 

Before entering WTO in 2001, China's average duty for agricultural products was 54%, which was reduced to 23.2% since entering WTO. Currently, the average duties thereof only accounts for 15.2%, while the average duties for non-agricultural products only accounts for 9% at this moment.
 

As pointed by Zhang Xiangchen, there is no "false content" in China's restriction and implementation of customs tariff. Such level of liberalization should be the second to none among the developing countries, or even better than some developed countries. However, during the negotiation, based on the general situation, China would still make the commitment on further opening up to the outside world. According to the current negotiation, China would cut the customs tariff of 20%-30% in the agriculture and non-agriculture fields.
 

In addition, as entering WTO, China made the commitment on opening 100 service sectors, which are much higher than the number of service sectors opened by the other developing countries and close to the average 104 sectors opened by the developed countries. However, China further opened 7 more sectors during the Doha negotiation.
 

It is anticipated that the major industrialized country will suffer from economic recession in 2009. This would have a strong impact on the other countries in the world, especially the developing countries with higher foreign trade dependence. The adjustment of United States is transferred to the whole world. So, the world economy is faced with an accommodation period. It will accelerate China's pace for structural adjustment.
 

Jin Zheshou, the former Deputy Director-General of WTO, points out that the influence of crisis on industrialized countries and developing countries will appear soon. It will be reflected in the decrease of growth rate and high rate of unemployment.
 

The shrunk of consumer market due to the financial crisis has produced serious negative effect on the foreign trade. For the continuous overspread of financial crisis, the policy-makers from various countries tend to protect the local manufacturers and adopt extreme measures to restrict the import, namely, the trade protectionism.
 

As pointed out by Xia Bingchun, senior adviser to the secretary-general of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, WTO system should be reformed to answer the financial unrest and economic recession. Under current economic circumstances, WTO offered a copy of insurance policy for prevention of unadvised protectionism. However, WTO is not only a platform for trade negotiation and solving the disputes, but shall pay more attention to the supervision on WTO agreements in the future as well as improve its functions herein.
 

Also, in the past, each side's expectation on the negotiation results concerning WTO's market admission is not subject to the actual conditions. So, now we shall pay more attention to WTO's capability for gradually decreasing the trade barriers. For example, the customs tariff could be lowered progressively and the benefits could be brought by the liberalization of trade.

China Securities Journal