NOTE: This page will be updated by the 2004-2005 IIEL Fellows
China's WTO Accession
China's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) is considered to be one of the most important challenges facing China, the WTO and the rest of the world in the near future. Without China, the WTO membership appears to be incomplete and its pretensions to universality somewhat hollow. However, China's accession also raises serious legal questions: necessary legislative and statutory changes in Chinese legislation pursuant to WTO accession will be required and serious new constraints will be placed on Chinese policy in order to conform with the WTO rules. On the other hand, China's membership undoubtedly will affect some of the key WTO rules and policies, particularly by giving China a voice in future WTO policymaking.
The IIEL therefore initiated a research project entitled, "Effects of China's Accession to the WTO," which aims to document - over the next several years - some of the legal, political and structural issues faced by China in light of its accession and, also, the influence of Chinese legal culture and diplomacy on several of the key concerns currently facing the WTO. The first phase of the Project will lead to the publication of a Symposium book consisting of papers addressing ongoing questions of immediate policy importance for business and government in the United States and China. The authors invited to participate in this symposium will include experienced and qualified Chinese and US scholars and practitioners with extensive expertise in the Chinese economy and legal system as well as the world trading system and the WTO. The second stage of the Project, building upon the outcome of the symposium, will consist of various research studies on more specific topics related to China's WTO accession.
This site therefore intends to serve as a portal to a lot of the information that is available on China. In particular, this site provides links to documents, bibliographies, articles and news on China's accession process as well as to institutions and foundations that provide interesting and useful information on China in general and on the WTO accession in particular.
