The World Trade Organisation cannot be deemed truly international without the full participation of China, a massive market with an increasing number of highly sophisticated sectors. Yet'although China did accede to the WTO in 2001, after fifteen years of negotiations'WTO members persist in classifying China as a non-market economy, with all the trade restrictions such labelling entails. The EC in particular continues to curtail the flow of Chinese-European trade, despite some recent liberalisation in EC import and antidumping regulations. In this important book Dr. Hoogmartens clearly points the way to an equitable resolution of the complex problems raised by the friction between China's planned economy and EC trade policy instruments. The 'economic interface' he constructs takes account of such crucial elements as the following: China's 'unfinished' legal and economic reforms;the danger that the EC may develop an abusive protectionist stance;the challenge to the EC of increased Chinese competition;the persistence of Chinese state-owned enterprises;the absence of a satisfactory methodology to deal with the Chinese variant of a non-market economy;the possible adjustment of EC antidumping regulations vis-à-vis China;emergency safeguards;the role of the rule of law in trade regulation; andthe 'translatability' of Western social and political institutions. Addressing as it does a highly salient present and future aspect of the global economy, EC Trade Law Following China's WTO Accession will be of enormous value to policymakers in international economic law at all national and supranational levels. The author's reasoned and cautious analysis builds a sound platform for the ongoing development of peaceful and mutually beneficial commercial relations between Europe and China.

"China's accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 2001 was hailed as the natural conclusion of a long march that started with the reforms introduced by Deng Xiaoping in the 1970s. However, China's participation in the WTO since joining has been anything but smooth, and its self-proclaimed "socialist market economy" system has alienated many of its global trading partners - as recent tensions with the United States exemplify. Prevailing diplomatic attitudes tend to focus on two diametrically opposing approaches to dealing with the emerging problems: the first is to demand that China completely overhaul its economic regime; the second is to stay idle and accept that the WTO must accommodate different economic regimes, no matter how idiosyncratic and incompatible. In this book, Mavroidis and Sapir propose a third approach. They point out that, while the WTO (as well as its predecessor, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade [GATT]) has previously managed the accession of socialist countries or of big trading nations, it has never before dealt with a country as large or as powerful as China. Therefore, in order to simultaneously uphold its core principles and accommodate China's unique geopolitical position, the authors argue that the WTO needs to translate some of its implicit legal understanding into explicit treaty language. Focusing on two core complaints - that Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) benefit from unfair trade advantages, and that domestic companies (both private as well as SOEs) impose forced technology transfer on foreign companies as a condition for accessing the Chinese market - they lay out their specific proposals for successful legislative amendment"--.

With China's accession to the World Trade Organization imminent, this book brings together the expert views of scholars, policy-makers and business representatives on the consequences of this historic event. Insight into the past and future of China's relationship to the WTO is offered by authors involved on both sides of the negotiations on the EU-China bilateral agreement of May 2000 and the on-going negotiations up to spring 2001. An analyst and representatives from four economic sectors (the automobile industry, telecommunications, insurance and banking) clash over their predictions for the future. Also presented is an investigation of the challenges for China's political, social and legal systems, and revealing prognoses are given for the implications for global trade and investment flows for the EU and Greater China, and for the modus operandi of the WTO itself. By shedding light on economic effects and social and legal implications, the book gives a comprehensive picture of potential challenges arising from China's entry to the WTO.

As the number one destination for global foreign direct investment and the third largest trader in the world, China is too important to be ignored by any business that has a vision for the future. China's Participation in the WTO brings together the most insightful contributions from the International Conference on China's Participation in the WTO hosted by the East Asian International Economic Law and Policy Program (EAIEL) at The University of Hong Kong in February 2005. The work focuses on three general themes: taking stock of the progress China has made in implementing its WTO commitments, identifying the challenges facing China as a new Member in the WTO, and generating proposals on how China could participate in the WTO more effectively.

Presents a comprehensive survey of Chinese legal and regulatory systems governing international trade, following China's accession to the World Trade Organisation ("WTO") in November 2001, and the coming into force of the revised PRC Foreign Trade Law in July 2004. This book is of interest to legal researchers and practitioners.

Of Political Science, Asia/Pacific Research Center, Stanford University.

This book provides an in-depth analysis of "Mega-Regionals", the new generation of trans-regional free-trade agreements (FTAs) currently under negotiation, and their effect on the future of international economic law. The main focus centres on the EU-US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), but the findings are also applicable to similar agreements under negotiation, such as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).The specific features of Mega-Regional Trade Agreements raise a number of issues with respect to their potential effect on the current system of international trade and investment law. These include the consequences of Mega-Regionals for the most-favoured-nation (MFN) principle, their relation to the multilateral system of the World Trade Organization (WTO), their democratic legitimacy and their interaction with existing bilateral investment treaties (BITs).The book is intended for academics and practitioners working in the field of international economic law.

In less than three decades, China has grown from playing a negligible role in international trade to being one of the world's largest exporters, a substantial importer of raw materials, intermediate outputs, and other goods, and both a recipient and source of foreign investment. Not surprisingly, China's economic dynamism has generated considerable attention and concern in the United States and beyond. While some analysts have warned of the potential pitfalls of China's rise—the loss of jobs, for example—others have highlighted the benefits of new market and investment opportunities for US firms. Bringing together an expert group of contributors, China's Growing Role in World Trade undertakes an empirical investigation of the effects of China's new status. The essays collected here provide detailed analyses of the microstructure of trade, the macroeconomic implications, sector-level issues, and foreign direct investment. This volume's careful examination of micro data in light of established economic theories clarifies a number of misconceptions, disproves some conventional wisdom, and documents data patterns that enhance our understanding of China's trade and what it may mean to the rest of the world.

The European Union (EU) has now become the largest trade partner of China. While Sino-US trade relations and particularly the high-profile trade disputes between the US and China get considerable academic attention for geopolitical reasons, less research has been done on the Sino-EU trade disputes that gradually loom large on the horizon. This book delves into the trade disputes between China and the EU and identifies the causes for trade disputes. It examines how the disputes will shape China-EU trade relations, and offers a macro overview on how the issues can be resolved or at least how they should be managed.This timely book sheds light on Sino-EU trade disputes, putting these in global perspective and enriching the literature in this regard.

11 December 2016 marks the 15th anniversary of China's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO). In 2001, after arduous negotiations with key WTO members, China agreed not only to extensive market access commitments but also to substantial non-reciprocal rules obligations. This was unprecedented in WTO history. Most WTO disputes involving China, notably in the field of trade remedies, have been linked to these tailor-made rules for China. China has exhibited timely and qualitatively sound compliance with WTO rulings. But its narrow letter of the law compliance has at times been found not to reflect the spirit of the legal provisions at issue, with WTO-inconsistent regulations having remained in place or re-emerged. In the Doha Development Round of WTO multilateral negotiations China has so far taken a backseat rather than a leadership role. Domestic resistance to reform in sensitive areas on economic and ideological grounds has been a crucial factor in China's absence from the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement. Past US opposition has been key for its non-participation in the Trade in Services Agreement. Uncertainties about ratification by the US Congress of the US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership and future US trade policy under President Donald Trump may reverse the past trend of China's marginalisation from shaping global rules outside the WTO. At the same time this may lower China's ambition to shift gradually from rather shallow to EU-style 'deep and comprehensive' free trade agreements (FTAs) and may induce it to promote its own rules more assertively by leveraging its economic weight in predominantly bilateral relations under its One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative.