Institutional opening up contributes to China's rapid growth

By Duan Yaying
0 Comment(s)Print E-mail China.org.cn, December 10, 2021
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China's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001 laid down an institutional system for the country's opening up, boosting reform, growth and innovation over the past two decades, according to a high-level forum held Wednesday to mark the 20th anniversary of China's accession.

Chen Deming, China's former minister of commerce, addresses the High-Level Forum on the 20th Anniversary of China's Accession to the WTO, held in Beijing, Dec. 8, 2021. [Photo/China.org.cn]

The forum was co-hosted by China Internet Information Center, the China Society for World Trade Organization Studies and the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing. WTO experts, professors and government officials reviewed China's landmark accession to the international organization and its contribution to the world economy at the forum.

The institutional opening up is a strategic decision by China in its foreign trade practice, and has proved to be a successful experience that China has drawn from during the past 20 years of being in the WTO, China's former Commerce Minister Chen Deming said. 

Since China joined the WTO 20 years ago, Beijing has embarked on a road of globalization, ushering in the nation's rapid growth, said Yi Xiaozhun, former deputy director-general of the WTO.

Statistics show that China is now the world's largest exporter and second largest economy with its GDP per capita exceeding the $10,000 benchmark for two consecutive years.

Yi Xiaozhun, former deputy director-general of the WTO, addresses the High-Level Forum on the 20th Anniversary of China's Accession to the WTO, held in Beijing, Dec. 8, 2021. [Photo/China.org.cn]

Yi attributed China's rapid growth to its competent government, which stepped up firm top-down efforts to launch nationwide institutional reform and opening up for joining the WTO.

China amended and repealed more than 3,000 pieces of legislation, administrative regulations and departmental rules to establish a unified and transparent policy system consistent with WTO rules.

According to Chen, high-level institutional foreign trade will dampen U.S. and Western attempts at decoupling. Despite a group of 67 nations including China, the U.S. and EU members reaching an agreement on trade in services in the WTO last Thursday, the WTO functions have not fully recovered, and regional agreements remain a strategic option for China's institutional opening up.

Yi called for an open, non-discriminatory and rules-based multilateral trading system, saying it is indispensable to the economic growth of China and the entire world.

China needs to play an active role in WTO reform to ensure that the multilateral trade system continues to move forward in an open, inclusive and non-discriminatory way, while preventing the global trade system from moving toward protectionism, Yi said.

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