Return to GATT: China's move to participate in the multilateral trade system

The present study is undertaken to examine China's move to participate in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade: its implication to the world trade system and its complications due to China's existing economic structure. China's position in the world political spectrum, the volume of its foreign trade and the size of its market make China's effort to resume its GATT seat an epoch-making event. Due to historic reason and China's economic structure, China's assession to the GATT has created certain problems for the Contracting Parties. The biggest concern is China's socialist economy and its foreign trade regime. Arguments are made here to show that the reforms in China in the past decade have substantially changed its old economic structure and, as a result, China should be accepted into the GATT system in the near future. China's continued efforts to move its economy into a market-oriented one should eliminate most of the worries the West has about China's re-entry. China has had experience in dealing with world economic organizations before when it entered the IMF and the World Bank, while the GATT also allowed centrally planned economies to become members of the contracting parties in the past. Several options for China to participate in the GATT are probed and arguments are made for China to enter the GATT as a member with full capacity rather than one with limited privilege.