China Joins the WTO

China applied to resume its place in GATT in 1986 and, after fifteen years of negotiation, joined the WTO on December 11, 2001. To enter, it agreed to cut tariffs, open sectors such as banking and telecommunications, and accept special rules allowing other members to treat it as a non-market economy in anti-dumping cases for fifteen years. Supporters of accession, including US President Bill Clinton, argued that integrating China would boost trade and might encourage economic and political liberalization.

China's exports soared: by 2009 it was the world's largest exporter of goods, and global supply chains reorganized around its factories. Consumers worldwide gained cheaper goods, and hundreds of millions of Chinese workers moved into manufacturing. Critics later argued that state subsidies, forced technology transfer and weak intellectual-property enforcement violated the spirit of the deal, while Chinese officials point to their tariff cuts and compliance with rulings. Assessments of accession remain sharply divided.