China

This report is structured in three volumes: competition provisions; environment provisions; and labor mobility provisions. The main messages of this three volumes are... Show More + as follows: 1) competition laws and policies are increasingly being established at the regional level, as they could be instrumental in supporting the benefits of trade and investment liberalization; 2) China may want to use the opportunity of these negotiations to: (a) further discipline its state-owned enterprises;(b) carefully consider the possible role of antidumping policies; and (c) promote and lock-in domestic reforms aimed at improving its domestic competition policies; 3) with a shift of the development agenda from primarily pursuing growth to achieving a more balanced and sustainable development and taking into account China's high reliance on trade, it may be increasingly in China's interest to pro-actively engage its partners on environmental issues in its regional trade agreement (RTA) negotiations; and 4) while the world economy stands to gain massively from liberalization in the mobility of labor, adverse popular reaction to the economic and social impacts of immigrants has kept progress in enhancing global labor mobility well below progress in trade and capital liberalization. Show Less -

The past eight years witnessed China's phenomenal growth and integration into the world economy, expedited by its accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in... Show More + 2001. The accession greatly accelerated China's domestic reforms. By the end of 2007, China was ranked the second largest exporter and third largest trader in the world after its exports grew at over 20 percent per year for the sixth year in a row. The increasing competitiveness of China has been driving the efficiency of production, innovation and growth of global exports to new heights. Regional production networks in East Asia grew substantially in the past few years and were largely centered on China. This volume aims to help guide policymakers in assessing the second generation trade issues and their development impact on China by presenting lessons from other countries and policy options. Trade is a strategic area in which the World Bank has been working closely with China with the aim to promote the country's participation in the multinational economic institutions, to reduce its barriers to trade and investment, and to involve it more in global development and cross-border learning initiatives. This volume would not have been possible without collaboration with the Chinese Ministries of Finance, Commerce, and Agriculture. It has also incorporated valuable contributions from Chinese researchers in the trade area. Studies in this collection have been disseminated in a series of workshops and learning events co-organized by the World Bank and the Chinese counterparts in Beijing, which served as a forum for policy dialogue among the Chinese policy makers, trade negotiators, and scholars from development and international perspectives. Show Less -