Does China deserve the market economy status?
Author InfoMarie-José Rinaldi-Larribe William S. Lightfoot Zhongxiu Zhao Abstract Purpose – Throughout the past 30 years, major economic reforms have been implemented in China; in 2001, China’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) was a major step, since it enabled the country to formally join the globalised world. But China entered the WTO without market economy status (MES), meaning that other countries can easily use the WTO international settlement body in antidumping procedures against Chinese firms. Since joining the WTO, Chinese authorities have repeatedly attempted to gain this status, arguing that considerable progress has been made in dealing with dumping, and that the transition process from a planned to a market economy (ME) has been considerable. This paper aims to explore the issues surrounding this situation. Design/methodology/approach – The authors searched the literature in order to understand the reasons why China has been denied the MES until now, accordi
