The first stage is the review stage of China's trade system, starting from 1986 and continuing to 1992. During this period, the GATT Working Group in China held a total of 65,438+00 meetings, and reviewed China's foreign trade system, tariff and non-tariff measures, service trade and foreign investment management. Due to the monopoly of foreign trade countries formed under the highly centralized planned economy system for a long time, China's foreign trade system is far from the requirements of GATT. The State party asked China to reform its economic and trade system as soon as possible, and raised thousands of oral or written questions on this issue. At the same time, led by MOFTEC, China Municipal Government organized the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the General Administration of Customs, the State Planning Commission, the Ministry of Finance, the the State Council Special Administrative Region Office, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, the State Administration of Price, the State Commodity Inspection Bureau, the State Statistics Bureau, and the State Commission for Restructuring the Economy to attend the meeting of the China Working Group of GATT, and gave oral answers on China's economic system reform, foreign trade system reform and tariff system.

After 1989, the international situation changed suddenly, eastern Europe changed dramatically, the former Soviet Union disintegrated, and China's "re-entry into GATT" encountered unfavorable international situation and environment. The United States and other western countries imposed economic sanctions on China, and regarded the "re-entry of GATT" as a trump card to put pressure on China and promote change. Some western countries also have doubts about China's reform and opening-up policy, and regard the "rectification" initiated by 1988 as retrogression. In this atmosphere, China's "re-entry into GATT" negotiations were blocked and came to a standstill. It was not until US Secretary of State Baker visited China in June 199 1 1 that China and the United States made concessions and reached an agreement (the United States supported China to resume its status as a contracting party of GATT, and China agreed to Taiwan, Pengjin and Jinma to join GATT as a separate customs territory). 1in February, 1992, the China working group held its 10 meeting, which basically concluded its consideration of China's foreign trade system. Deng Xiaoping's talk in the south and the goal of establishing a socialist market economy set by the 14th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) have brought vitality to the social and economic development of China and injected new vitality into the re-entry negotiations. On June 65438+1October of the same year, the China Working Group held its 1 1 meeting to discuss the framework of China's re-entry protocol. At this point, the resumption of negotiations has entered a critical second stage.

The second stage of the negotiations mainly focuses on market access, which is the core stage and the most difficult stage of the whole WTO accession negotiations. Negotiations mainly solve the problems such as the speed, scope and conditions of opening the market. 1In April 1994, China signed the Final Act of the Uruguay Round and the Agreement of the World Trade Organization. In June 5438+065438+1October of the same year, China proposed to complete the substantive negotiations on resuming GATT before the end of the year, but at the19th meeting of the GATT Working Group held in China in February 65438, it failed to reach an agreement on China becoming a founding member of the WTO. 1 99565438+1October1,the World Trade Organization was formally established, and after a one-year transition period, it completely replaced GATT. In May of the same year, negotiations on China's resumption of GATT, which had been suspended for nearly five months, resumed in Geneva. On July 1 1, the WTO accepted China as an observer. 1 1 In June, 2006, the China GATT Working Group was renamed the WTO Working Group, and the China GATT negotiations became WTO negotiations.

65438+1In May 1997, the fourth meeting of the China Working Group of the World Trade Organization reached an agreement on two main provisions of the Protocol on China's accession to the WTO, namely, the principle of non-discrimination and judicial review. In August of the same year, New Zealand became the first country to reach a bilateral agreement with China on China's accession to the WTO. 1in April, 1998, China put forward a package of tariff reduction plans at the seventh meeting of the WTO working group in China, which was generally welcomed. The WTO has 65,438+035 members, and 36 members have requested bilateral market access negotiations with China. The negotiation task is extremely arduous. By the end of 1999 and 10, China has concluded bilateral negotiations with 12 countries, and 24 countries have not yet concluded them, including the United States and the European Union.

Sino-US bilateral negotiations run through the negotiation process of China's "re-entry into GATT" and "entry into WTO", and the outcome of each negotiation plays a decisive role. As the largest developed country in the world and a major member of GATT/WTO, the United States occupies a dominant position in GATT/WTO and is also China's largest trading partner. During the Sino-US negotiations in 15, the United States always put forward harsh conditions on behalf of the contracting parties to China, while the China administration adhered to the principle of "favorable, reasonable and restrained", safeguarded the fundamental interests of the country and fought hard with the United States. After ups and downs, in the spirit of equality, mutual benefit, mutual understanding and mutual accommodation, the two governments finally reached a bilateral agreement on China's accession to the WTO on June 5438+09965438+10/5, and achieved a "win-win" result. So far, China's WTO accession negotiations have made significant progress.

Since then, the negotiation process of China's accession to the WTO has been greatly accelerated. On May 6, 2000, representatives of China and the European Union signed a bilateral agreement on China's accession to the WTO. On June 9, 2000/KLOC-0 and June 9, 2002/KLOC-0, the United States and the European Union successively reached a comprehensive consensus with China on the remaining issues in the multilateral negotiations on China's accession to the WTO. From June 28th to July 4th, the China Working Group of WTO reached a comprehensive consensus on the 12 major issues left over from multilateral negotiations. From July16 to 20, the China Working Group of WTO held consultations on the legal documents of China's accession to the WTO and its annexes and the report of the Working Group, and finally completed the drafting of the documents. On 2001September 13, China and Mexico reached a bilateral agreement. So far, China has completed all bilateral market access negotiations with WTO members.

Two months later, in June 165438+ 10/0, the people of China finally ushered in a historic moment when the Doha meeting deliberated and adopted China's decision to join the WTO. After completing the necessary procedures, one month later, China stepped into the threshold of the WTO and became a member of the WTO.