Preface

Examined from a historical perspective, China's joining the World Trade Organization (WTO) can be regarded as a continuation and deepening of China's twenty-year-long process of reform and opening up to the outside world. Today, the results and accomplishments of reform and opening up are already being widely shared by domestic groups with vested interests within China itself. Yet as the momentum for advancing reform declines day by day, China is hoping that such a major step as joining the WTO will set the table for a healthy international economic environment that will be conducive to the growth of China's foreign trade. This, in its turn, would have the effect of paving the way for and bringing momentum to rapid development in China's own domestic economy. In addition, it would lay the foundation for reducing trade-related friction between China and other nations, and for China to take part in the next round of multilateral trade negotiations. Perhaps it would also lay the groundwork for prospects of reforming and changing the unreasonable rules and regulations that still exist today in the arena of international trade and finance. Furthermore, China's hopes and expectations may be that joining the WTO will bring about a deeper and fuller blending of China's economy into the great tide of economic globalization, thus providing a fresh drive for reform and opening up in the new century.