China’s Trade Negotiation Strategies

Abstract

China’s opening and reform process that began in the late 1970s has induced a great era during which the Chinese economy has been incrementally integrating with the world economy. Outbound trade and inbound foreign direct investment (FDI) served as the twin engines of growth. China’s contemporary economic story is ‘a classical demonstration of the potential of export-oriented industrialization’ (Krugman and Obstfeld 1991: 247). An acceleration of that process arrived with China’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001. China enjoyed tremendous gains by facing lower tariffs and fewer trade restrictions in accessing the extensive markets of WTO member