An examination of China’s participation in the World Trade
Organization, the conflicts it has caused, and how WTO reforms could
ease them China’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in
2001 was rightly hailed as a huge step forward in international
cooperation. However, China’s participation in the WTO has been
anything but smooth, with China alienating some of its trading
partners, particularly the United States. The mismatch between the WTO
framework and China’s economic model has undermined the WTO’s
ability to mitigate tensions arising from China’s size and rapid
growth. What has to change? China and the WTO demonstrates that
unilateral pressure, by the United States and others, is not the
answer. Instead, Petros Mavroidis and André Sapir show that if the
WTO enacts judicious reforms, it could induce China’s cooperation,
leading to a renewed confidence in the WTO system. The WTO and its
predecessor, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, are
predicated on liberal domestic policies. They managed the previous
accessions of socialist countries and big trading nations, but none
were as large or powerful as China. Mavroidis and Sapir contend that
for the WTO to function smoothly and accommodate China’s unique
geopolitical position, it needs to translate some of its implicit
principles into explicit treaty language. To make their point, they
focus on two core complaints—that Chinese state-owned enterprises
(SOEs) benefit from unfair trade advantages, and that domestic
companies, private as well as SOEs, impose forced technology transfer
on foreign companies as a condition for accessing the Chinese
market—and they lay out specific proposals for WTO reforms. In an
age of global trade disputes, China and the WTO offers a timely
exploration of unprecedented challenges to the current multilateral
system and fresh ideas for lasting solutions.
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Why Multilateralism Still Matters
Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780691206608
Publisert
2020
Utgiver
Princeton University Press
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter