Worrying silence on the WTO – the WTO column

This month it is four years ago China entered the WTO, at the time a clear sign the country was prepared to enter a fast globalizing world market following international standards. The accession was part of a huge push by the Chinese government to sell the WTO to its own citizens, as it was obvious that it would be a hard sell. At the time the Chinese media pushed the WTO in a classic campaign-style to its audiences.

Four years later, while its foreign trade partners are mildly positive about China’s commitment in opening up its markets, the lack of official enthusiasm compared to its accession four years ago is a worrying sign. 

Partly the lack of enthusiasm for the WTO has political reasons. Since December 2001 a new government has taken over. The WTO was a pet-project for the former Prime Minister Zhu Rongji and the new government has changed priorities on many fields, including the WTO.

Who now looks at the Chinese media, might find it hard to notice the WTO at all. The environmental crisis, AIDS, bird flu: No shortage of problems in China and as the media work as a mirror of the official political agenda the lack of enthusiasm is clear.

Later this month the WTO will have its first meeting on Chinese soil, in Hong Kong, and even that event still has to hit the domestic media in a grand way, like you would expect for a major international event.

While the assessments of foreign trade partners about China’s way to deal with its membership of the WTO is largely positive, there are good reasons for China itself to be less enthusiastic about especially its trade partners in Europe and the US. The haphazard re-introduction of quota on textile and the way both trade partners blackmailed China into accepting those restriction has been no encouragement for official enthusiasm for the WTO and certainly the industries involved have been very upset about this wave of protectionism that has been hitting Chinese industry.

In total, China and its citizens have still won greatly from the globalization on trade, despite all the negative fallout. China has lifted the majority of its people from poverty in the past twenty years, although there is still much room for improvement and it has come at the expense of many other developing countries in the world. 

That lack of official enthusiasm for the WTO and disgust about the protectionism of its European and American trade partners could easily have a more negative effect. Now Chinese companies simply rely to smart ways to avoid quota and other restrictions. When the lack of empathy of Europe en the US continues, the Chinese government might be less committed to stick to its part of the WTO-deal.