BEIJING, Oct 25: Chinese legislators, bureaucrats and lawyers are working overtime to amend and pass trade laws in a frantic attempt to get China ready to join the World Trade Organization (WTO) as hoped by the end of the year, officials said Thursday.
The last-ditch efforts come ahead of a November 9-13 WTO ministerial meeting in Doha, Qatar, widely expected to issue a formal invitation for China to join the global trading body.
The country is thought to be particularly keen to end its 15-year battle to join the WTO this year, thus capping a 12-month period which has already seen Beijing win the 2008 Olympics and the national football team reach its first-ever World Cup finals.
However under WTO rules, formal entry can only come 30 days after China’s legislature ratifies its WTO accession protocol, which spells out all China’s market openings and tariff reduction schedules, and also ensures Chinese trade laws are compliant with WTO rules, experts said.
China’s own legal system has various internal laws in respect to foreign trade that need to be consistent with the rules of the WTO before China can enter, said Eisuke Suzuki, deputy head lawyer for the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
This would not only protect foreign companies in China but also form the legal basis for Chinese businesses to address violations of their trading rights, he told AFP.
China’s parliament, the National People’s Congress, is now deliberating a law on government procurement as well as amendments to laws on copyright, trademarks and trade unions with WTO entry in mind, Chinese trade officials said.
At the same time China’s trade ministry and the legislative affairs office of the Chinese cabinet are further preparing yet another series of draft amendments.
These include regulations on anti-dumping, anti-subsidy, trade safeguard measures and the import and export of goods, to be ratified upon WTO accession.
Such laws are expected to be used as a “two-edged sword”, Suzuki said, as China will need to become versed in WTO legal methods to protect its markets.
Wei Jianguo, an assistant minister at China’s Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC), said as much at an international seminar on WTO trade law in Beijing this week.
We will use legal weapons to strike against irregular competition in the Chinese market by foreign manufacturers and exporters, he told overseas and Chinese legal experts.
On Wednesday China published its first full English-language edition of its national laws, all 16 volumes, thus fulfilling a WTO requirement on legal disclosure and transparency, Suzuki said.
MOFTEC lawyers have additionally drawn up plans to abolish around 570 trade regulations and revise 120 more in an effort to make Chinese law WTO compliant.
Suzuki said he thought the frantic efforts would pay off.
Given the political determination demonstrated by China’s leadership, and the process and diligence of legislators, lawyers and officials, I’m confident that China will make the necessary steps to enter the WTO this year, he said.
Despite the political pressure, some observers have said the sheer legislative backlog could foil entry in 2001.
Officials have thus prepared a Plan B refusing to recognize WTO rules on accession.
After the Doha meeting passes a decision on China’s acceptance, China will become a formal member of the WTO within 30 days, an official at MOFTEC’s department of WTO affairs told AFP on condition of anonymity.
That is our official stance, he said, refusing to comment on the WTO requirement this must be preceded by ratification of the accession protocol and necessary laws.—AFP