Accession to the WTO as a Developing Country Sample Clauses

Accession to the WTO as a Developing Country. One of the issues of major importance for the relationship of China with other WTO members is whether China will assume full “developing country” rights. China pursued for many years the position of seeking specific confirmation in its accession documents that China was a developing country. As within the UN system, designation as a developing country is a matter of self-selection, the debate was in fact more about whether major trading nations or blocks such as the US, EC, Japan, etc. would accept China receiving all of the special and differential treatment rights provided within the WTO agreements for developing countries. Because of the tremendous growth in exports from China and perceived lack of need by many trading partners for China to receive across the board special and differential treatment, the US, EC and other WTO members insisted on China agreeing to waive certain rights it could otherwise assert as a “developing country”. Actually, China wants to be classified as a developing country and the US wants it classified under the developed country standard, which would preclude the ten per cent subsidy that China provides. As is true for nearly all countries, China’s protocol does not contain any explicit mention that China is to be treated as a developing country. But China’s situation makes a complicated protocol necessary only where the acceding country is not in compliance or where the nature of the economic system raises questions about whether existing members will, in fact, be receiving benefits after accession. In such cases, either special phase-in periods are identified or additional requirements mapped out. China has a significant number of areas where full compliance or full liberalization by the time of accession was not possible. Therefore, China designated itself to be a developing country when China became a WTO member in order that China could still enjoy special and preferential treatment in some fields of its commitments. Even so, China would like to undertake the commitments as more as possible in the light of domestic economic development and situation. Full compliance with the WTO Valuation Agreement to accept the transaction value for the determination of customs value of imported goods is one of the examples. Furthermore, the issue of developing country will be of considerable importance in the future trade relationship between China and other member countries, including in the Doha Development Round.