China has negotiated membership into the World Trade Organization and its predecessor since 1986. It is the largest trading nation still outside the system, with trade last year worth more than 300 billion dollars and until it joins the World Trade Organization is not worthy of its name (China and the…, 2.)

By looking at the history and the functions of the WTO, one can see that if China is accepted they would be bound by international rules and would be forced to open their markets. This is ideally to the benefit of the entire international community.

The World Trade Organization came into being in 1995. The multilateral trading system is one of youngest international organizations and is the successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) established in the wake of the Second World War (WTO in brief, 1.) GATT and the WTO have helped to create a strong and prosperous trading system contributing to unprecedented growth in the world's economy. The WTO's system was developed through a series of trade negotiations, or rounds, held under GATT. The prima

These two factors led to an iced silence between China and the US until April 6 of this year when China's Prime Minister and economic guru, Zhu Rongji, arrived in Washington (Ramsay, 1.) The trip's aim was to discuss China's acceptance into the World Trade Organization and hopefully to regain positive relations between the two countries. Several analysts predicted that the visit would be a disaster. What occurred was exactly the opposite. The two leaders were cordial and the talks looked promising. But, concessions were not suitable to the United State’s standards. President Clinton declined the offer by the Chinese to liberalize their market and to give the US almost half of the control over telecommunications and financial services. Clinton did not believe that the offer would satisfy Congress nor convince them to give China normal trading relations status. The deal itself does not have to be passed by Congress, but the body must show that China is within most favored nation status by the US. Some of the factors that Congress is considering is the improvement of human rights, arms control, and the conflicts in the American Labor Unions. These are details that have been left out of the agreements. Besides the US, China must be approved by the European Union, the Latin Americas, and other key players in the WTO.

In March of this year, NATO accidentally dropped a bomb on the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. This resulted in deaths of three Chinese natives. Since NATO is highly influenced by the United States, terms such as "the evil empire" were used to describe the country (Eckholm-News…, 1.)

The World Trade Organization's Secretariat is located in Geneva, Switzerland. Its staff is over 500 and is currently led by Mike Moore, the Director-General. Its main duties are to supply technical and legal support to the members, and to explain WTO affairs to the media and the public. The budget of the secretariat is over 117 million Swiss francs. The primary functions of the WTO are to administer trade agreements, act as a forum for trade negotiations, settle trade disputes, review national trade policies, assist develo

Some topics in this essay:
Trade Organization, Moore Director-General, Property Councils, Millennium Round, WTO China, President Clinton, GATT WTO, China’s WTO, Recently China, Belgrade Yugoslavia, world trade, trade organization, world trade organization, china accepted, global community, china agreed cut, entire global, functions wto, wto china, benefit entire, ministerial conference, telecommunications financial services, entire global community, china accepted wto, china the…,