CRI听力:Ten Years after China's entry into the WTO

China has witnessed its fastest-ever economic growth during the ten-year period since its entry into the WTO.
This country's GDP has more than doubled over the past decade.

Assistant Minister of Commerce, Yu Jianhua, says over the past 10-years, China has transformed itself from a new WTO member to one of the trend-setters in the global trade body.

"China fully participates in WTO affairs. This country has played a constructive role in the Doha negotiations, putting in over 100 proposals. China has also been active in helping develop multilateral trade rules. It has been able to use the WTO's trade dispute mechanisms to help safeguard Chinese companies in their disputes with other WTO members.

WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy has given China an A+ for its performance in the multilateral trade system."

The Ministry of Commerce says China has completely fulfilled its commitments that were required to join the World Trade Organization.

Average tariff levels have dropped from 15.3-percent to 9.8-percent over the last 10-years.

Average annual imports have reached 750 billion US dollars.

About 18 million jobs have been created for other economies.

Around 100 different areas of the service sector have opened up, and over 3-thousand Chinese laws and regulations have either been repealed, revised or put into place.

But Yu Jianhua also contends that China's time in the WTO hasn't all been about THIS country's interests.

"Over the last ten years, China has completely eliminated the tariffs on commodities from 41 of the world's least developed countries, transforming China into their largest export market. China has imported more than 200 billion US dollars worth of goods from those countries."

And Yu Jianhua also says China isn't resting on its laurels, saying this country is going to continue to open its doors to play a bigger role in both regionalization and globalization.

"We are going to continue opening-up our coastal areas, inland areas and border areas. We're also going to expand the consumer market, as well as the financial, logistical, medical and other service sectors to the world."

As it stands now, 81 countries around the world recognize China as a market economy.

However, 10-years in, some players within the WTO, including the United States, the EU and Japan, still haven't given China market-economy status, meaning they can still restrict access to trade with China in certain areas.

However, China will automatically obtain full market economy status in 2016.

For CRI, this is Ding Lulu.