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International automakers have set their sights on the China market. At the Ninth China (Guangzhou) International Automobile Exhibition held on November 22-28, global auto brands gathered to show off their latest car models and turn the exhibition into a platform for launching new models and impressive concept cars in the global market. The international automakers have also formulated detailed plans for expanding or entering the Chinese market.
This was unimaginable 10 years ago, when international auto giants turned a blind eye to China. That was before China became a member of the WTO.
China was admitted to the WTO on December 11, 2001. After that China lowered tariffs on imported products. The tariff rate on imported cars was reduced from 80 percent to 25 percent and tariffs on car parts and components were reduced from 35 percent to 10 percent. Quota restrictions on imported cars were eliminated.
“This caused car prices to drop to a reasonable level conforming to market rules and the affordability of Chinese consumers. It also allowed the auto market to boom,”said Rao Da, Secretary General of the China Passenger Car Joint Conference.
Since 2001 the sales volume of cars in China has increased on a year-on-year basis. Various foreign producers have entered China. Domestic capital is being used to nurture the industry. Many domestic brands have been established. In 2010, a total of 18 million automobiles were sold in China, nearly eight times that in 2001, ranking first in the world.
When China first entered the WTO, its auto output was less than one sixth that of the United States. Now China’s auto output has doubled that of the United States. In 2001 the total output value of China’s auto industry was only 443.3 billion yuan ($69.7 billion), but in 2010, it reached 4.34 trillion yuan($682.39 billion).
The rapid growth shocked international auto giants. They began to look at the Chinese market differently.
For international automakers that entered the Chinese market early, China has become their primary source of profit growth. That trend continued in Guangzhou this year, with big names like Bentley, Benz and Cayenne reaping handsome profits in the country.
Dancing with wolves
Media reports 10 years ago assumed that China’s entry into the WTO would prove catastrophic for the country’s industries, particularly the auto industry. Many people were worried that after tariffs were reduced by a large margin, imported cars would conquer the Chinese market, driving domestic companies off the road.
“The disaster everyone was predicting didn’t come to pass. Instead, we have seen high-speed development beyond expectations,” Rao said.
The high tariffs before had protected not only China’s backward auto industry, but also foreign auto companies that had entered China earlier. A fully opened market formed after China’s entry into the WTO has allowed access to all foreign automakers. As a result, competition among the foreign players has forced them to bring the best models to China.
As an added bonus, advanced technologies and management expertise they have brought along with their investment have greatly improved the Chinese auto industry.
Zhang Yansheng, a researcher with the Academy of Macroeconomic Research affiliated to the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), said when China first entered the WTO, people were most concerned about whether its disadvantageous industries, such as auto manufacturing, agriculture and the financial sector, could stand up to international competitors. During the past decade, these industries have formed their own competitive advantages under an open market-oriented economy.
Opening allows the whole auto manufacturing industry to move forward. It also gives Chinese automakers the chance to develop.
In its dance with foreign competitors, China has responded swiftly. Yu Jianhua, Assistant Minister of Commerce, said over the past decade China has explored a road of promoting development and reform through opening up. Just three years after it entered the WTO, China rewrote laws and regulations that didn’t conform with WTO rules. The central and local governments amended or abolished 90,000 laws and regulations.
According to Yu, China has fulfilled its WTO commitments, adjusted tariff rates and non-tariff trading mechanisms, and opened service trade. Domestic laws and regulations, after amendments, all conform to China’s WTO commitments and WTO rules.
“During this process, we have accelerated the market-oriented progress and established a trading system which is more stable and more transparent and open, and this has made the business environment more open and better regulated,” Yu said. “Recognition of the nondiscrimination principle, the transparency principle and the rule of fair competition of the WTO, as well as a market-oriented economy, the rule of law and the protection of intellectual property rights have reached unprecedented heights, which has exerted a far-reaching impact on the transformation of government functions and the renovation of public ideas.”
The past decade has seen the best and most rapid development in China, and also the sharing of economic interests between China and other countries.
“In the past decade we imported an average of $750 billion worth of goods each year, creating more than 14 million jobs in other countries,” he said.
During the past 10 years, China has participated in trade promotion and foreign aid around the world, with the latter effort covering such fields as infrastructure, public utilities, social welfare facilities, agriculture, health care and education. China’s assistance has also helped the least developed countries enhance their capability to participate in global trade. China grants zero-tariff treatment to commodities produced by 41 of the least developed countries and has become the biggest export destination for them.
China’s accession to the WTO has also promoted the development and improvement of its market-oriented economy.
“Under the planned economy, the national economy was managed by government documents, but now it is managed by laws and regulations, in an open and transparent way both at the central and local levels,” Yu said.
Closer economic ties
During the WTO entry negotiations, China’s biggest rival was the United States. But 10 years later, people find that Sino-U.S. economic ties have been closer than any other economic relations.
Before China’s entry into the WTO, the U.S Congress held an annual vote on whether to grant China the most favored nation status. As a WTO member, this status is a right and
has acted to promote trade between the two countries.
Figures from the Ministry of Commerce(MOFCOM) show that China-U.S. bilateral trade increased from $80.5 billion in 2001 to$385.34 billion in 2010. Today, China and the United States are the second biggest trading partners to each other. The United States is China’s second largest export destination, while China is the third largest and the fastest growing export destination for the United States.
Sun Zhenyu, former Chinese ambassador to the WTO, said the United States and European countries are the biggest beneficiaries of China’s WTO membership.
Sun said a multi-lateral trading mechanism was produced after World War II, and all prevailing world trade rules were formulated under the lead of the United States and developed European countries. It’s no surprise that many clauses do protect the interests of these countries. Ever since applying for WTO membership, China has been reforming and adapting to these rules, though none of which was made with input from China.
According to Sun, the United States and Europe have benefited from the multi-lateral trading mechanism for dozens of years. Although China is now the second largest trading nation and the largest exporting nation in the world, most of its products are of low added value. China, for the time being, is just a workhorse producing consumer goods for the West.
Producing an iPhone, which sells for$299 in the United States, China earns trade surplus of $150, but Chinese companies receive less than $4 of the profits.
With the two countries strengthening cooperation and competition in the manufacturing sector, China is increasingly relying on imports of stable farm produce from the United States, like soybeans, corn and cotton.
According to statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture, China’s total farm produce imports went up from $11.8 billion in 2001 to $71.9 billion in 2010, an average annual increase of 22.2 percent. China first faced agriculture trade deficits in 2001. Now, agriculture trade deficits have lasted eight years, and in 2010 the deficits stood at $23.04 billion, up 5.7 fold from 2004.
When China first entered the WTO, 15 percent of its agricultural product needs were imported. In 2010, the rate rose to 20.2 percent. Among China’s agriculture trade deficits, most come from the United States. Soybean and corn imported from the United States have accounted for 70-80 percent of China’s vegetable oil production capacity.
China’s agriculture still isn’t able to compete internationally. The country’s agriculture trade deficits will continue to exist and expand, and the proportion of imported farm produce will continue to rise.
In the past decade, because of closer Sino-U.S. trade ties and imbalances in trade, some say that U.S. deficits with China deprive Americans of jobs. Yu can hardly agree.
MOFCOM figures showed that in January-October 2011, China’s total trade surplus was $120 billion, while its surplus with the United States hit $160 billion. “This imbalance could only be explained that China has trade deficits against many other economies,” Yu said.
According to Yu, the situation is the result of industrial labor division and reasonable resource allocation from globalization. China doesn’t pursue a trade surplus, and its overall principle is to stabilize exports, adjust the trade structure and realize a trade balance.
As for the trade imbalance between China and the United States, Yu said China’s surplus mainly comes from processing trade. Many U.S. enterprises previously located in Japan, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), South Korea or Taiwan were moved to China after it entered the WTO to seek low costs. The United States used to face trade deficits against these countries or regions, but after the American enterprises moved to China, the deficits were also transferred.
“Actually the proportion of U.S. trade deficits against all of Asia among the total U.S. trade deficits is almost the same as before, but the previous deficits against Japan, ASEAN, South Korea and Taiwan have gone to China,” Yu said.
The United States’ persistence over the renminbi appreciation issue is a problem for Sino-U.S. trade relations. However, although the renminbi has appreciated by 30 percent in the past year, the employment and economic conditions in the United States have not improved.
Yu said the export-oriented economic growth pattern China has adopted since 2001 has seriously damaged its own resources and environment. China is now at the intersec- tion of transforming its economic growth pattern, and it should deeply reconsider the consequences of export-oriented trade development pattern and make readjustments at proper time.
The future is more important
Celebrations and seminars on the 10th anniversary of China’s accession to the WTO have started in China. Miao Jianmin, Chairman of China Life Asset Management Co. Ltd., thought what is more important is not to conclude the past achievements, but to consider how to develop in the future.
Even after bringing its laws and regulations in line with WTO guidelines, many policies are still not being properly implemented, said Miao. Moreover, China needs to take special steps to prevent risks while learning from past crises—the 1997 Asian financial crisis and the 2008 global financial crisis—as it continues to open up.
Miao said China’s financial industry has developed quickly, with expansion of the virtual economy developing just as fast. Now, China needs to figure out how to deal with relations between the real economy and the virtual economy. There have been lessons in this regard by other countries. For example, in the European Union, the virtual economy expanded and deviated from the development of the real economy, causing the problems now facing the EU.
Zhang of the NDRC’s Academy of Macroeconomic Research said in the future China should be more active in participating in the Doha round of negotiations. It should also have a hand in reforming international trade, financial and monetary systems and providing more public products and services to the world.
Zhang said China’s 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15) proposes a shift of focus in opening up from exports and foreign capital introduction to imports and exports, as well as a parallel progress in attracting foreign investment and making overseas investment. China’s foreign trade will be strategically transferred to balanced development. On the one hand, the country will expand exports, and on the other it will strive to become a provider of final consumption and a final market while actively participating in international competition, exchanges and divisions of labor.
Some labor-intensive industries in China should be transferred to other countries and regions, such as those in Southeast Asia and South Asia. “The labor and land costs in China are rising fast, so transfer is not necessarily a bad thing, because it can help the development of other countries and let them share the benefits of globalization,”said Zhang Wenkui, Deputy Director of the Enterprise Research Institute of the Development Research Center of the State Council.
China will continue to open up in the years to come, no matter what challenges it faces. At a MOFCOM press conference held on November 21, E Defeng, Deputy Director of the Department of WTO Affairs at MOFCOM, said the ministry is formulating strategic guiding documents on opening up.
Only unswervingly expanding opening up can China maintain sustainable economic development, Yu said.
“China’s accession to the WTO, including the decade after that, is not the end point of its opening up, but a new starting point,”Yu said.
According to Yu, in the future China will continue to promote opening up in its coastal, inland and frontier areas. It will actively expand opening up of financial, logistics and healthcare services in the consumer market, and establish an all-round, scientific method of opening up. It will more actively participate in economic globalization and regional integration, and in implementing a strategy of opening up for mutual benefit.
This was unimaginable 10 years ago, when international auto giants turned a blind eye to China. That was before China became a member of the WTO.
China was admitted to the WTO on December 11, 2001. After that China lowered tariffs on imported products. The tariff rate on imported cars was reduced from 80 percent to 25 percent and tariffs on car parts and components were reduced from 35 percent to 10 percent. Quota restrictions on imported cars were eliminated.
“This caused car prices to drop to a reasonable level conforming to market rules and the affordability of Chinese consumers. It also allowed the auto market to boom,”said Rao Da, Secretary General of the China Passenger Car Joint Conference.
Since 2001 the sales volume of cars in China has increased on a year-on-year basis. Various foreign producers have entered China. Domestic capital is being used to nurture the industry. Many domestic brands have been established. In 2010, a total of 18 million automobiles were sold in China, nearly eight times that in 2001, ranking first in the world.
When China first entered the WTO, its auto output was less than one sixth that of the United States. Now China’s auto output has doubled that of the United States. In 2001 the total output value of China’s auto industry was only 443.3 billion yuan ($69.7 billion), but in 2010, it reached 4.34 trillion yuan($682.39 billion).
The rapid growth shocked international auto giants. They began to look at the Chinese market differently.
For international automakers that entered the Chinese market early, China has become their primary source of profit growth. That trend continued in Guangzhou this year, with big names like Bentley, Benz and Cayenne reaping handsome profits in the country.
Dancing with wolves
Media reports 10 years ago assumed that China’s entry into the WTO would prove catastrophic for the country’s industries, particularly the auto industry. Many people were worried that after tariffs were reduced by a large margin, imported cars would conquer the Chinese market, driving domestic companies off the road.
“The disaster everyone was predicting didn’t come to pass. Instead, we have seen high-speed development beyond expectations,” Rao said.
The high tariffs before had protected not only China’s backward auto industry, but also foreign auto companies that had entered China earlier. A fully opened market formed after China’s entry into the WTO has allowed access to all foreign automakers. As a result, competition among the foreign players has forced them to bring the best models to China.
As an added bonus, advanced technologies and management expertise they have brought along with their investment have greatly improved the Chinese auto industry.
Zhang Yansheng, a researcher with the Academy of Macroeconomic Research affiliated to the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), said when China first entered the WTO, people were most concerned about whether its disadvantageous industries, such as auto manufacturing, agriculture and the financial sector, could stand up to international competitors. During the past decade, these industries have formed their own competitive advantages under an open market-oriented economy.
Opening allows the whole auto manufacturing industry to move forward. It also gives Chinese automakers the chance to develop.
In its dance with foreign competitors, China has responded swiftly. Yu Jianhua, Assistant Minister of Commerce, said over the past decade China has explored a road of promoting development and reform through opening up. Just three years after it entered the WTO, China rewrote laws and regulations that didn’t conform with WTO rules. The central and local governments amended or abolished 90,000 laws and regulations.
According to Yu, China has fulfilled its WTO commitments, adjusted tariff rates and non-tariff trading mechanisms, and opened service trade. Domestic laws and regulations, after amendments, all conform to China’s WTO commitments and WTO rules.
“During this process, we have accelerated the market-oriented progress and established a trading system which is more stable and more transparent and open, and this has made the business environment more open and better regulated,” Yu said. “Recognition of the nondiscrimination principle, the transparency principle and the rule of fair competition of the WTO, as well as a market-oriented economy, the rule of law and the protection of intellectual property rights have reached unprecedented heights, which has exerted a far-reaching impact on the transformation of government functions and the renovation of public ideas.”
The past decade has seen the best and most rapid development in China, and also the sharing of economic interests between China and other countries.
“In the past decade we imported an average of $750 billion worth of goods each year, creating more than 14 million jobs in other countries,” he said.
During the past 10 years, China has participated in trade promotion and foreign aid around the world, with the latter effort covering such fields as infrastructure, public utilities, social welfare facilities, agriculture, health care and education. China’s assistance has also helped the least developed countries enhance their capability to participate in global trade. China grants zero-tariff treatment to commodities produced by 41 of the least developed countries and has become the biggest export destination for them.
China’s accession to the WTO has also promoted the development and improvement of its market-oriented economy.
“Under the planned economy, the national economy was managed by government documents, but now it is managed by laws and regulations, in an open and transparent way both at the central and local levels,” Yu said.
Closer economic ties
During the WTO entry negotiations, China’s biggest rival was the United States. But 10 years later, people find that Sino-U.S. economic ties have been closer than any other economic relations.
Before China’s entry into the WTO, the U.S Congress held an annual vote on whether to grant China the most favored nation status. As a WTO member, this status is a right and
has acted to promote trade between the two countries.
Figures from the Ministry of Commerce(MOFCOM) show that China-U.S. bilateral trade increased from $80.5 billion in 2001 to$385.34 billion in 2010. Today, China and the United States are the second biggest trading partners to each other. The United States is China’s second largest export destination, while China is the third largest and the fastest growing export destination for the United States.
Sun Zhenyu, former Chinese ambassador to the WTO, said the United States and European countries are the biggest beneficiaries of China’s WTO membership.
Sun said a multi-lateral trading mechanism was produced after World War II, and all prevailing world trade rules were formulated under the lead of the United States and developed European countries. It’s no surprise that many clauses do protect the interests of these countries. Ever since applying for WTO membership, China has been reforming and adapting to these rules, though none of which was made with input from China.
According to Sun, the United States and Europe have benefited from the multi-lateral trading mechanism for dozens of years. Although China is now the second largest trading nation and the largest exporting nation in the world, most of its products are of low added value. China, for the time being, is just a workhorse producing consumer goods for the West.
Producing an iPhone, which sells for$299 in the United States, China earns trade surplus of $150, but Chinese companies receive less than $4 of the profits.
With the two countries strengthening cooperation and competition in the manufacturing sector, China is increasingly relying on imports of stable farm produce from the United States, like soybeans, corn and cotton.
According to statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture, China’s total farm produce imports went up from $11.8 billion in 2001 to $71.9 billion in 2010, an average annual increase of 22.2 percent. China first faced agriculture trade deficits in 2001. Now, agriculture trade deficits have lasted eight years, and in 2010 the deficits stood at $23.04 billion, up 5.7 fold from 2004.
When China first entered the WTO, 15 percent of its agricultural product needs were imported. In 2010, the rate rose to 20.2 percent. Among China’s agriculture trade deficits, most come from the United States. Soybean and corn imported from the United States have accounted for 70-80 percent of China’s vegetable oil production capacity.
China’s agriculture still isn’t able to compete internationally. The country’s agriculture trade deficits will continue to exist and expand, and the proportion of imported farm produce will continue to rise.
In the past decade, because of closer Sino-U.S. trade ties and imbalances in trade, some say that U.S. deficits with China deprive Americans of jobs. Yu can hardly agree.
MOFCOM figures showed that in January-October 2011, China’s total trade surplus was $120 billion, while its surplus with the United States hit $160 billion. “This imbalance could only be explained that China has trade deficits against many other economies,” Yu said.
According to Yu, the situation is the result of industrial labor division and reasonable resource allocation from globalization. China doesn’t pursue a trade surplus, and its overall principle is to stabilize exports, adjust the trade structure and realize a trade balance.
As for the trade imbalance between China and the United States, Yu said China’s surplus mainly comes from processing trade. Many U.S. enterprises previously located in Japan, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), South Korea or Taiwan were moved to China after it entered the WTO to seek low costs. The United States used to face trade deficits against these countries or regions, but after the American enterprises moved to China, the deficits were also transferred.
“Actually the proportion of U.S. trade deficits against all of Asia among the total U.S. trade deficits is almost the same as before, but the previous deficits against Japan, ASEAN, South Korea and Taiwan have gone to China,” Yu said.
The United States’ persistence over the renminbi appreciation issue is a problem for Sino-U.S. trade relations. However, although the renminbi has appreciated by 30 percent in the past year, the employment and economic conditions in the United States have not improved.
Yu said the export-oriented economic growth pattern China has adopted since 2001 has seriously damaged its own resources and environment. China is now at the intersec- tion of transforming its economic growth pattern, and it should deeply reconsider the consequences of export-oriented trade development pattern and make readjustments at proper time.
The future is more important
Celebrations and seminars on the 10th anniversary of China’s accession to the WTO have started in China. Miao Jianmin, Chairman of China Life Asset Management Co. Ltd., thought what is more important is not to conclude the past achievements, but to consider how to develop in the future.
Even after bringing its laws and regulations in line with WTO guidelines, many policies are still not being properly implemented, said Miao. Moreover, China needs to take special steps to prevent risks while learning from past crises—the 1997 Asian financial crisis and the 2008 global financial crisis—as it continues to open up.
Miao said China’s financial industry has developed quickly, with expansion of the virtual economy developing just as fast. Now, China needs to figure out how to deal with relations between the real economy and the virtual economy. There have been lessons in this regard by other countries. For example, in the European Union, the virtual economy expanded and deviated from the development of the real economy, causing the problems now facing the EU.
Zhang of the NDRC’s Academy of Macroeconomic Research said in the future China should be more active in participating in the Doha round of negotiations. It should also have a hand in reforming international trade, financial and monetary systems and providing more public products and services to the world.
Zhang said China’s 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15) proposes a shift of focus in opening up from exports and foreign capital introduction to imports and exports, as well as a parallel progress in attracting foreign investment and making overseas investment. China’s foreign trade will be strategically transferred to balanced development. On the one hand, the country will expand exports, and on the other it will strive to become a provider of final consumption and a final market while actively participating in international competition, exchanges and divisions of labor.
Some labor-intensive industries in China should be transferred to other countries and regions, such as those in Southeast Asia and South Asia. “The labor and land costs in China are rising fast, so transfer is not necessarily a bad thing, because it can help the development of other countries and let them share the benefits of globalization,”said Zhang Wenkui, Deputy Director of the Enterprise Research Institute of the Development Research Center of the State Council.
China will continue to open up in the years to come, no matter what challenges it faces. At a MOFCOM press conference held on November 21, E Defeng, Deputy Director of the Department of WTO Affairs at MOFCOM, said the ministry is formulating strategic guiding documents on opening up.
Only unswervingly expanding opening up can China maintain sustainable economic development, Yu said.
“China’s accession to the WTO, including the decade after that, is not the end point of its opening up, but a new starting point,”Yu said.
According to Yu, in the future China will continue to promote opening up in its coastal, inland and frontier areas. It will actively expand opening up of financial, logistics and healthcare services in the consumer market, and establish an all-round, scientific method of opening up. It will more actively participate in economic globalization and regional integration, and in implementing a strategy of opening up for mutual benefit.