The Foreign Service Journal, January 2003

In the services sector, the PRC made far-reaching commitments to allow foreign financial institutions, dis- tributors, telecommunications operators and professional service providers to enter the domestic market and remove all geographic restrictions over the next five years. It agreed not to impose restrictions on previously acquired rights of all foreign service providers that exist- ed at the date of China’s accession. It also agreed to streamline and make more transparent its licensing pro- cedures. Beyond these specific obligations, China agreed to reduce tariffs for more than 5,300 different product cat- egories. It agreed to reduce tariffs for industrial products of concern to the United States from a base average of 25 percent in 1997 to 7 percent by 2005, and to eliminate tariffs on computers, semiconductors and other informa- tion technology products under the Information Technology Agreement. In acceding to the WTO, China also accepted the minimum standards for intellectual property rights protection under the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights. Finally, China committed to adopting a rules-based trad- ing system incorporating core WTO principles such as most-favored-nation treatment, national treatment, transparency and the independent judicial review of administrative decisions. WTO Implementation In general, I believe that China has made substantial progress in implementing its WTO commitments since its accession last December. According to China’s Foreign Trade Minister, China has reviewed, amended and/or abolished over 2,300 trade-related laws and regu- lations to comply with its new WTO commitments. The embassy’s own table of major new WTO-related legisla- tion issued by different Chinese government agencies since last December lists over 200 laws in the areas of general economic policies, trade in goods and services, trade remedies, standards, trade-related investment mea- sures, and intellectual property rights. All of these new laws and regulations are accessible in relevant ministry F O C U S 56 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 3 2000 N. 14th Street Suite 500 Arlington, VA 22201 Telephone (703) 797-3259 Fax (703) 524-7559 Tollfree (800) 424-9500