U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick and Chinese Trade Representative
Shi Guangsheng, meeting in Shanghai last week, finalized agreements on many
years of on-and-off trade
negotiations. As a result, many now believe China's final hurdle to membership
in the World Trade Organization has been cleared.
The U.S. and China reached a general agreement in 1999, but many specific trade
actions and policies of China's government remained unresolved until last week.
The World Trade Organization's 141 member nations are now likely to confirm the
agreement during the upcoming Geneva WTO Conference on June 28. China's membership
could be confirmed during the all-nation WTO Ministerial Conference scheduled for
November 9-13, 2001 in Doha, Qatar.
Significance to the Bearing Industry
These actions are significant for the world bearing industry because China has, by
most calculations, become the world's bearing vendor. Although reliable numbers are
scarce, China is likely the world's largest source of ball and roller bearings, but
most certainly for small ball bearings. The Chinese market also represents, for other
manufacturers, the world's fastest-growing marketplace for bearings. Joint venture
manufacturing operations in China would also become far more attractive and accessible
to outside companies under WTO rules.
Background on the World Trade Organization
Since World War II, successive rounds of international trade negotiations have
created a more open and fair world economy, raising growth and living standards
worldwide. The WTO was created in 1995, during the "Uruguay Round".
The WTO is an international institution and a forum for negotiating, administering,
and enforcing a set of agreements to reduce barriers to trade among the United States
and 140 other members. Based in Geneva, Switzerland, it succeeds the General Agreement
on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) founded after World War II, which began the process of
lowering trade barriers around the globe. The WTO expands and improves upon the GATT.
It has more members, further reduces trade barriers, and expands fair trading rules
in more areas.
For more information about the United States and the World Trade Organization,
please go to the web site of the Office of the United States Trade Representative.
[ click here to go to the WTO page of the U.S. Trade Representative ]
[ click here to go to the World Trade Organization ]
NOTE: There are many, many "spoof" sites on the Internet
which go to make the visitor believe he is seeing the official WTO and GAAT sites.
Instead, you will quickly find that they are run special-interest groups vehemently
against the WTO, pushing their own "anti-globalization", "closed-trade" and
protectionist agendas. As a result, we cannot recommend surfing the Internet for
reliable WTO news sources other than those listed above.
printer-friendly version
