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China
was one of the 23 original contracting parties to the GATT 1947.
But Taiwan authority illegally occupied China's seat when new China
was founded in 1949 and in March 1950, Taiwan authority withdrew
from the GATT.
In
April 1984, China gained the observer status in the GATT and formally
made its application for resumption to the GATT contracting party
status, thus starting the "long march" of its resumption
to the GATT.
In
September 1986, China took part in the overall GATT Uruguay Round
Multilateral Trade Negotiations. In March 1987, China's Working
Party on Resumption was set up within the GATT and held its first
meeting in October of the same year. By its 11th meeting in Oct.
1992, the Working Party on China's Resumption had almost completed
the review on China's economic and trade regime and entered the
substantial negotiations on the protocol of resumption to the GATT.
In April 1994,China signed the Final Act of Uruguay Round and the
Agreement on the Establishment of WTO.
WTO
was formally established on 1 January 1995 and replaced the GATT
after one-year transition period. On 11 July of the same year, China
was accepted as an observer to the WTO. And in November the Working
Party on Resumption to the GATT was changed into the Working Party
on China's Accession to the WTO.
In
May 1997, the Working Party on China's Accession to the WTO held
its 4th meeting in Geneva and in August China signed its first bilateral
market access agreement on accession to the WTO with New Zealand.
Altogether there are 37 WTO members that held bilateral negotiations
and signed agreements on market access with China, including the
one signed with the U.S. on 15th November 1999 and the one signed
with the EU on 19 May 2000. Being the last one, Mexico signed the
agreement with China on 13 September 2001. These 37 WTO members
are as follows: New Zealand, Hungary, South Korea, Czech, Slovakia,
Pakistan, Turkey, Singapore, Indonesia, Japan, Australia, Chile,
The United States, Canada, Cuba, Venezuela, Sri Lanka, Brazil, Uruguay,
Peru, Norway, Iceland, Sweden, the Philippines, India, Columbia,
Argentina, Thailand, Poland, Kirghizia, Latvia, the European Union,
Guatemala, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Switzerland and Mexico.
In
June and July 2001, The Working Party on China's Accession to the
WTO held several meetings, which finalized the drafting work of
the legal documents, such as accession protocol and its attachment
and the report of the working party.
On
17 September 2001 in Geneva, the 18th meeting of its Working Party
formally and finally approved the Protocol of China's Accession
to the WTO and its Attachments and the Report of the Working Party,
thus marking the conclusion of the negotiations on China's accession
to the WTO and China becomes a de facto member of WTO from then
on.
WTO
held its 4th Ministerial Conference in Doha, Qatar on 9-13 November
2001 and there as an agenda item, the decision on China's accession
to the WTO was reviewed and adopted.
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