The 15th anniversary of China’s accession to the World Trade Organization has made the pace of its integration into the world firmer.

　　On December 11th, 2016, it has been 15 years since China joined the World Trade Organization (WTO). In the historical process of China’s reform and opening up, China’s accession to the WTO is a key turning point. On December 11th, 15 years ago, China and the world took that important step together, which not only made China more closely connected with the world, but also made China more firmly integrated into the world.

　　Mutual benefit and win-win, the biggest "gift package" brought to China and the world.

　　In the 15 years since China’s entry into WTO, China has benefited from the development of globalization, and at the same time, it has been more deeply integrated into the world economy, becoming an indispensable and important force to promote the development of the world economy. Mutual benefit and win-win is an accurate description of the changes in the relationship between China and the world in the past 15 years.

　　"Joining the WTO is an important milestone for China’s economy to integrate into the world economy, and it is also an objective need for China to adapt to the development trend of economic globalization and further deepen reform and opening up." Gu Xueming, president of the Institute of International Economic and Trade Cooperation of the Ministry of Commerce, pointed out in an interview with the Economic Daily that "joining the WTO has played an important role in promoting China’s foreign trade development and stimulating economic growth."

　　Gu Xueming pointed out that, for China, by joining the WTO, China began to participate in the multilateral trading system, and established closer cooperative relations with other countries in international trade, investment, service and technology transfer, which in turn helped China to use factors and markets in a wider range, pushed reform and opening up to a new stage, and greatly promoted the development of social productive forces. At the same time, China’s accession to the World Trade Organization has enabled China to enjoy the results of tariff concessions in eight rounds of negotiations since the establishment of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, and enjoy the GSP treatment more widely, greatly improving China’s terms of trade, and at the same time promoting China’s further reform of its foreign economic and trade system, and taking important steps.

　　On the whole, from 2002 to 2015, the real GDP of China achieved an average annual growth rate of 9.74%. In 2001, China’s GDP was US$ 1.33 trillion, accounting for only 4.02% of the global GDP. By 2015, China’s GDP will reach US$ 10.87 trillion, accounting for 14.78% of the world’s total, ranking second in the world, up by 10.76 percentage points compared with that before China’s entry into WTO. According to the trade data, from 2002 to 2015, the import and export of China achieved an average annual growth rate of 15.31%. In 2001, China’s total import and export volume was 0.51 trillion US dollars, accounting for only 4.02% of the global import and export volume. After 15 years, in 2015, China’s total import and export volume was 3.96 trillion US dollars, about 8 times of the total import and export volume before China’s entry into WTO (2001), accounting for 11.89% of the global import and export volume, which was 7.87 percentage points higher than that before China’s entry into WTO.

　　"Since China’s accession to the WTO, it has made efforts to reform its domestic economic system and legal system in accordance with WTO rules, which has enabled China to integrate into the global economic system more quickly, and its foreign economic and trade activities have increased rapidly, and its share of trade and investment in the world has also increased substantially, effectively boosting China’s economic growth." Professor Sang Baichuan, dean of the Institute of International Economics of the University of International Business and Economics, said in an interview with the Economic Daily that China’s accession has also provided more trade and investment opportunities for other WTO members, which has boosted the growth of the world economy. "In the past 15 years, China has contributed the most to the growth of world economy and trade among the members of the World Trade Organization."

　　Over the past 15 years, China’s contribution rate and pull to world economic growth have been continuously improved. From 2002 to 2015, the proportion of China’s GDP in the world increased from 4.25% to 14.78%. If we look at the two points before and after China’s entry into WTO, we can find that in 2001, before the entry into WTO, the contribution rate of China’s real GDP to the world was only 0.53%, and the pulling degree to the global real GDP growth rate was 0.03 percentage points. However, by 2015, the contribution rate of China’s real GDP to the world is 24.8%, and the driving force to the global real GDP growth rate is 0.6 percentage points.

　　"In a global sense, China’s entry into WTO has injected new vitality into the further development of economic globalization", Gu Xueming pointed out, "China has driven the development of the world economy with its own development".

　　Keeping its promise, China constantly promotes the improvement of international trade rules.

　　In the past 15 years, the changes brought about by China’s accession to the WTO are not only reflected in its strong support for the world economy, but also in its commitment to the WTO, its respect for WTO rules and its promotion of the development of international trade rules in a more just and reasonable direction. As a representative of emerging economies, China has promoted the change of irrational and unjust international economic order and the evolution of global economic governance.

　　"The integration of China and the world economic system is not only reflected in the integration of capital, resources and markets, but more importantly, the docking of rules." Researcher Xing Houyuan, deputy director of the China Service Outsourcing Research Center, pointed out in an interview with this reporter that in the past 15 years, China’s compliance with WTO rules has made great contributions. "Multilateral rules have been practiced and promoted in China, the world’s most populous market and the second largest economy in the world."

　　After China’s entry into WTO, China has become an active participant, defender and contributor to the multilateral trading system, and advocates that the multilateral trading system represented by WTO should be the main channel of global trade rules. Over the past 15 years, China has taken practical actions to safeguard the multilateral trading system, participated in the construction of the multilateral trading system in an all-round way, and continuously improved its position and role in many WTO negotiations. China is committed to the progress of the Doha Development Round and actively participates in all rule-making and market opening negotiations within the WTO framework; Strictly implement the WTO ruling, use the trade dispute settlement mechanism to oppose trade protectionism, and file 13 lawsuits with the WTO; Successfully passed six WTO trade policy deliberations; Support the least developed countries and developing countries, and from December 10, 2015, implement zero tariffs on 97% of the tax items of 33 least developed countries that have established diplomatic relations and completed the exchange of letters; As the host country of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in 2014 and the presidency of the G-20 in 2016, we have sent a positive signal together with all parties to support the multilateral trading system and resolutely oppose protectionism.

　　At the beginning of China’s entry into WTO, the tariff level was greatly reduced at first, and the tariff levels of industrial products and agricultural products were lowered to varying degrees. China has been working hard to promote the implementation of trade facilitation and investment facilitation. In terms of market access for service trade, China has continuously expanded the scope of market access for service trade. In terms of investment access, China has introduced the market access mode of national treatment plus negative list. In addition, bold efforts have been made to reduce non-tariff measures. At the same time, a large number of administrative examination and approval items have been cleared up, many administrative examination and approval contents have been cancelled, and a series of international economic and trade laws and regulations have been revised. China has made great improvements in intellectual property protection, environmental standards, import and export inspection and quarantine system, foreign exchange management system and international capital flow management system.

　　"As a member of the World Trade Organization, China is not only trying to adapt to the requirements of the rules of the World Trade Organization, but also trying to carry out effective cooperation with developing and developed members to promote the improvement of the rules of the World Trade Organization," Sang Baichuan told reporters. For example, in the Doha Round negotiations, China was an active contributor. China also plays a constructive role in promoting fair trade and promoting negotiations on common issues of common concern. "China is an important builder of the World Trade Organization and an important force for adhering to the multilateral economic and trade system."

　　"China has made efforts to promote the development of international trade rules in a more reasonable and just direction," Gu Xueming pointed out. On the one hand, China has fully participated in the construction of the multilateral trading system, and its position and role in many WTO negotiations have been continuously improved. China promoted the conclusion of the WTO Agreement on Trade Facilitation and the Agreement on Information Technology (ITA), and contributed to its early implementation. At present, China is actively participating in a number of plurilateral negotiations under the WTO framework, including participating in the negotiation of the Agreement on Environmental Products as a sponsor, submitting six bidding lists for China’s accession to the Agreement on Government Procurement to the WTO, and applying to join the negotiation of the Agreement on Trade in Services. On the other hand, China is committed to building a high-level free trade zone. Up to now, 14 free trade agreements have been signed and implemented, involving 22 countries and regions. China-South Korea and China-Australia Free Trade Zones cover new issues such as intellectual property rights, competition, cross-border e-commerce and environment, while China-US and China-EU new generation investment agreements and RCEP negotiations pay more attention to investment liberalization, and adopt the mode of pre-entry national treatment plus negative list. In November 2016, China and New Zealand initiated negotiations on upgrading the China-Singapore FTA.

　　Open wider to the outside world, persist in economic globalization and oppose protectionism.

　　The changes and adjustments brought about by the international financial crisis are still going on, and the economic and trade pattern including world trade, investment and industrial chain is also undergoing profound changes. What kind of strategy China will adopt in the future to face the development and changes of global trade pattern and multilateral trading system is a question worthy of serious consideration.

　　The current multilateral trading system has made remarkable achievements since its establishment in 1995. The total trade volume of more than 160 member countries accounts for more than 90% of global trade, which has played an irreplaceable role in global trade and investment liberalization and world economic growth. However, the existing international trade rules, based on traditional trade issues, are mainly used to regulate the cross-border trade flow of goods, which has fallen far behind the actual needs. At present, trade protectionism is on the rise, trade friction is intensifying and the international trade environment is deteriorating, which hinders the recovery of the world economy. Therefore, China is actively seeking ways to promote the upgrading of multilateral trade rules, promote the negotiation of WTO plurilateral agreements, and support the early completion of the Doha Round of WTO negotiations.

　　"In the future, China should continue to oppose trade protectionism, strengthen international cooperation and jointly safeguard the multilateral trading system. Give full play to the important role of the dispute settlement mechanism under the WTO framework in maintaining the stability and predictability of the multilateral trading system, "Gu Xueming told reporters:" WTO members will not easily give up the multilateral trading system that benefits the global economy, and China will continue to make efforts to support the early completion of the WTO Doha Round negotiations and truly realize the development goals set by all members. "

　　"For the current trade protectionism, we should not only stay at the level of advocacy and moral accusation, but also take practical measures at the multilateral level, and the overall framework should be adjusted." Xing Houyuan said that only when the restraint mechanism is perfect and trade protectionism is actually restrained can we maintain the fair development of global trade.

　　"Under the framework of the World Trade Organization, maintaining a fair and free trade system is the direction that China should stick to". Sang Baichuan pointed out that in the development of international economic and trade rules, the distribution of interests among WTO members is unbalanced. The income of different classes within a member is also uneven. Under the two unbalanced conditions, different views and strategies on trade liberalization have been triggered. Some WTO members have picked up the means of trade protection, which has also formed an impact on the multilateral system. In the future, China should promote the improvement of international economic and trade rules and reform the global economic governance system in accordance with the basic concepts of fairness, openness, sharing and mutual benefit. "We should give full play to the basic role of the WTO in global economic governance, take the multilateral system as the foundation and regional cooperation as the starting point, and jointly promote the liberalization and fairness of international economic and trade from both multilateral and regional dimensions."