The WTO Transparency Obligations and China

Gao, Henry S.

doi:10.2139/ssrn.3071676

Cited by 10 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Several years after China was admitted and two years before most commitments were meant to be finalized, Kanungo (2005) noted that "the slow reform process coupled with a continuation of restrictions... are delaying [service sector] gains" (Kanungo 2005). More recent studies have noted that modest initial gains in service sector openness have largely leveled off (Chen and Whalley 2014), and significant regulatory barriers to trade still exist, particularly at the local level (Gao 2018). China maintains these barriers by claiming exemption to WTO mandates due to its status as a "developing county" (World Trade Organization 2019b).…”

Section: Service Sector Negotiations and The Wtomentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of WTO Membership on Service Sector Trade Liberalization

Englund¹

2022

J. Int. Logist. Trade

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Section: Service Sector Negotiations and The Wtomentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of WTO Membership on Service Sector Trade Liberalization

Englund¹

2022

J. Int. Logist. Trade

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Section: Service Sector Negotiations and The Wtomentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of WTO Membership on Service Sector Trade Liberalization

Englund¹

2022

J. Int. Logist. Trade

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A large portion of labor and trade in most countries is devoted to the service sector, and thus service sector impacts are crucial to a full understanding of the effects of WTO membership. The effect of WTO membership on trade volume has been subject to debate in the past, but critically, these studies have failed to examine service sector trade specifically. Conventional wisdom would seem to suggest that WTO membership should have boosted services trade, particularly after the implementation of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) in 1995. However, the relationship has yet to be rigorously tested. Here, I use data comprising 178 countries across a span ranging from 1995 until 2015 to examine the impact that WTO membership, and specifically WTO accession, has had on service sector trade levels relative to goods trade levels after the adoption of GATS. Statistical tests yield weak evidence for any significant relationship between WTO membership and service sector trade, with some possible exceptions for states that underwent many rounds of negotiations. This exception is explored further through a comparison of the WTO accessions of China and Vietnam. However, even in these extreme cases, it is difficult to find clear evidence of service sector liberalization. Overall, the findings imply that, in almost all cases, WTO rules and accessions have underemphasized service sector trade in favor of agricultural and goods trade, generating lopsided impacts to trade efficiency.

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“…Some of the problems with notifi cations may be due to conscious unwillingness to provide the information, or a general lack of transparency in China's governing institutions, but threats to identify the Chinese ambassador as a "member with notifi cation delay" when offered the fl oor in the General Council (WTO, 2020b) will not help address the matter. Some of the problems may have little to do with the Ministry of Commerce in Beijing, let alone the delegation in Geneva, since more powerful domestic ministries may not see the benefi ts to themselves in preparing the information (Gao, 2018). This applies a fortiori to countries that have weaker institutional capacity than China.…”

Section: Improving Transparency Is Central To Wto Reformmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reforming the World Trade Organization: Practitioner Perspectives from China, the EU, and the US

Hoekman

Wolfe

2021

China and World Economy

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China, the European Union, and the United States are the world's largest traders. They have a big stake in a multilateral system of rules to manage the inevitable frictions among interdependent economies organized on different principles. This paper discusses elements of the WTO reform agenda through the lens of positions taken by these three WTO members, identifying the extent of alignment on key subjects, including transparency, dispute settlement, and plurilateral negotiations. We draw on findings of a recent research project on WTO reform and use responses to an expert survey to assess the prospects for actions that all three trade powers might support. Our premise is that reforming WTO is a necessary condition for the organization to be a more salient forum for the three large economies to address trade tensions, and that agreement among these three trade powers, in turn, is necessary to resolve the problems of the WTO.

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The WTO Transparency Obligations and China

Cited by 10 publications

References 13 publications

The Effect of WTO Membership on Service Sector Trade Liberalization

The Effect of WTO Membership on Service Sector Trade Liberalization

The Effect of WTO Membership on Service Sector Trade Liberalization

Reforming the World Trade Organization: Practitioner Perspectives from China, the EU, and the US

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