Has WTO membership changed the way China approaches their export-driven strategy?
Cloutier: WTO membership has been a tremendous boon for Chinese industry. Membership gives the country what used to be called “most favored nation” tariff rates that, for almost everything, are negligible. In return, China was required to open up certain aspects of its economy. The introduction of foreign competition has benefited everybody in China, including the Chinese-owned industries that have had to improve their performance. There’s little doubt that WTO membership has been great for China. Editor: Any progress on the Doha Round? Kaplan: I think that it’s hard to see a solution to Doha in the short term, because it’s harder to do trade agreements in periods of economic difficulty. There’s also a question of whether there’s the political will around the world to do another trade agreement. It’s only been a little over ten years since the Uruguay round was completed, which made enormous changes in the rules of world trade. I think the beginning of the Doha Round was a little prema
