Negotiating Entry: Key Lessons Learned

Abstract

China’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) has taken 15 years of arduous and protracted negotiations. Assessing this process is a worthy undertaking, albeit one that invites controversy. Many thought that, as a major trading country, China was to join the WTO as a matter of course. Others thought that, because of its sheer size and importance, the WTO had to handle China’s accession with the utmost care. Whichever the approach, 15 years of negotiations seem far too long to achieve such a goal, particularly in relation to the average time taken by others who have acceded to the WTO.