China's Accession to the WTO

After 15 years of protracted negotiations, China has eventually joined the WTO as the 143rd member on 11 December 2001. Being a WTO member, China enjoys the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) treatment accorded by all WTO member economies in the international trade of goods and services. It also has the right to take part in the new round of multilateral trade negotiations and to resort to the WTO framework for resolution of trade disputes with other WTO members. The broad market opening commitments of China together with its rights and obligations as provided under the WTO agreements will contribute to a more liberal, transparent and predictable trading and investment environment in China as well as enriched business opportunities for the region.

To assist the trade in making the best of China's WTO accession, TID has published a pamphlet providing a handy summary of the major implications of the accession for Hong Kong's key business sectors and a special supplement setting out a detailed comparison of the existing business environment in the Mainland and the future market access conditions. Full set of the accession documents (with WTO document symbol WT/ACC/CHN/49) is also available in the WTO's online document database.