China and Taiwan join WTO

Electronic News, Nov 19, 2001

THOSE EYEING CHINESE MARKETS OR ALREADY INVOLVED IN MAIN-land China can rest easier now that China has acceded to the World Trade Organization (WTO). Legislative efforts on Capitol Hill to restrict or remove China's normalized trade Status with the United States are moot since China is now a WTO member and governed by its provisions, as is the United States. Permanent normalized trade relations (PNTR) for China became a bitter national debate last year and narrowly passed in Congress before being signed into law by then-President Clinton. Opposition to PNTR, centered around China's poor record on intellectual property and human rights, was only exacerbated by the spy-plane crisis last spring.

PNTR granted China normal trade status in the United States until it joined the WTO. Industry trade organizations Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) and the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) lobbied heavily in favor of PNTR. Capitol Hill efforts to derail PNTR have been pretty quiet in the wake of the events of Sept. 11 and the ensuing war in Afghanistan, said Jennifer Connell Dowling, director of public policy for SEMI. With China finally in the WTO, the legislative trade battle will likely center on giving President Bush trade promotion authority, which would give the President the power to negotiate the details of trade agreements and limit Congress' role to approval or denial of finalized agreements. "We're certainly promoting and supporting efforts to get trade supporting authority," Dowling said.

The 142 members of the WTO unanimously approved China's entry Nov.10 at the trade ministerial meeting in Doha, a city in the Persian Gulf country of Qatar. The vote culminated 15 years of negotiations between China and members of the WTO, in particular the United States. A day later, WTO trade ministers approved Taiwan's entry.