| Abstract: |
This paper reviews China's multilateral and preferential trade policies. It
reviews the demanding terms of China's WTO accession, its current tariff and
trade regime and its participation in the Doha Round negotiations and the
institution's regular activities. The analysis concludes that China's trade
policies are broadly supportive of a rules based multilateral trading order
and its behavior at the WTO is that of a status quo power rather than one
seeking major systemic changes. The discussion then turns to China's regional
trade initiatives. China has been extremely active in negotiating these and
their implications remain uncertain. Concerns about an East Asian fortress,
though, appear misplaced. Directly, and through their impact in inducing
others to respond, these FTAs could provide a powerful impetus to the process
of competitive global liberalization. Countries that do implement agreements
with China will find it relatively easy to open their markets to other
developing countries. There is also a risk however that the proliferation of
FTAs will lead to web of overlapping agreements that could make the trading
system unnecessarily complex |