China has negotiated membership into the World Trade Organization and its predecessor since 1986. It is the largest trading nation still outside the system, with trade last year worth more than 300 billion dollars and until it joins the World Trade Organization is not worthy of its name (China and the..., 2.)

By looking at the history and the functions of the WTO, one can see that if China is accepted they would be bound by international rules and would be forced to open their markets. This is ideally to the benefit of the entire international community.

The World Trade Organization came into being in 1995. The multilateral trading system is one of youngest international organizations and is the successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) established in the wake of the Second World War (WTO in brief, 1.) GATT and the WTO have helped to create a strong and prosperous trading system contributing to unprecedented growth in the world's economy. The WTO's system was developed through a series of trade negotiations, or rounds, held under GATT. The primary r

The most important benefit to China joining the World Trade Organization is that the country would be forced to make fundamental changes in the state-run economy by introducing fiercer competition from abroad. This open market will allow the global community to experience for the first time a vast new market of 1.2 billion consumers. For China, this new competition will lower prices for Chinese consumers.

The World Trade Organization's Secretariat is located in Geneva, Switzerland. Its staff is over 500 and is currently led by Mike Moore, the Director-General. Its main duties are to supply technical and legal support to the members, and to explain WTO affairs to the media and the public. The budget of the secretariat is over 117 million Swiss francs. The primary functions of the WTO are to administer trade agreements, act as a forum for trade negotiations, settle trade disputes, review national trade policies, assist developing countries in trade policy issues, and to cooperate with other international organizations (2.) The decisions on these items are made by consensus. Majority vote has never been used in the WTO, and rarely with its predecessor, GATT (2.) The decision making body is a hierarchical. The top level is Ministerial Conference, then General Council, then Goods, Services, and Intellectual Property Councils, and at the bottom are specialized committees and working groups. . The WTO has more than 130 members, accounting for over ninety percent of world trade. Over thirty others are negotiating membership (2.) Over three-quarters of WTO members are developing or least developed nations. Special provisions for these members are included in all agreements. The special provisions include: longer time periods for implementing agreements, measures to increase trading opportunities for these countries, requirement of all members to safeguard the trade interests of the less developed, and to support to help developing countries handle disputes and implement technical standards (2.) If China is accepted they will be considered for these provisions.

In March of this year, NATO accidentally dropped a bomb on the Chinese embas

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Approximate Word count = 1456
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)