China in the WTO: Threat or Promise of Good Things to Come?

Abstract

The World Trade Organization (created in 1995) is an intergovernmental body comprising the great majority of the world’s countries. The Organization’s purpose is to promote multilateral trade through reduction in obstacles erected by individual countries to global trade in goods and services, settle trade disputes, and lay down rules governing international trade. WTO actions are to be taken on the basis of nondiscrimination and equal treatment, in the spirit of classical liberalism and the rule of law Decisions are normally arrived at through the consensus of all members. China has expressed an intention to join the WTO principally, many hold, as a way of buttressing its domestic market reforms against opposition from sectional and ideological forces within the PRC with vested interests in the status quo. In the United States, opposition to China’s entry into the WTO comes from varied quarters and hinges on three concerns: that China is a big, communist, and erratic state, and hence is both unreliable and potentially disruptive to the Organization. Despite such risks and taking due precautions against what are legitimate concerns, this article argues that China should be admitted to the WTO. The alternative of leaving China out is untenable.