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PRESS/TPRB/262 
19 April 2006 
 
(06-1775) 
TRADE POLICY REVIEW: CHINA 
Economic reform has produced im pressive results but important 
challenges remain 
 
China's gradual economic reforms have opened the economy to international trade and investment 
and have made it one of the fastest growing in th e world, with a nearly nine-fold increase in GDP 
per capita since 1978, according to a WTO Secretariat report on the trade policies and practices of 
China.  
Ongoing trade and structural reforms, given ad ded impetus by China's membership of the WTO 
since 2001, have made it the world's third largest trader and one of the largest FDI recipients.  These reforms have also reduced the proportion of  China's population living in poverty from 73% 
in 1990 to 32% in 2003.  At the same time, however, income disparity has increased, especially 
between the coastal and inland regions and between  urban and rural areas.  Trade and investment 
barriers have declined considerably, in part due to WTO commitments.  Nevertheless, the report 
notes that the Government continues to intervene to "manage" trade, including for domestic 
supply considerations.  
Continued structural reform will increase unemp loyment in certain sectors and over 100 million 
jobs will need to be created over the next decade.  The report suggests it may be necessary to reappraise the current policy to attract investment to export-oriented capital intensive 
manufacturing and to place greater emphasis on removing impediments to the expansion of the 
services sector.  The Government also needs to ac celerate its efforts to raise the quality of the 
labour force in order to move away from traditional low-skilled, labour-intensive industries into 
higher value-added production.  Other challenges include bottlenecks in infrastructure as well as 
the continued need to restructure the financial sector and capital markets by making them more market oriented. 
 
The report, along with a policy statement by the Government of China, will be the basis for the 
first Trade Policy Review (TPR) of  China by the Trade Policy Review Body of the WTO on 19 and 21 
April  2006. 
 PRESS/TPRB/262 
Page 2 of 2 
 
 The following documents are available in MS Wo rd format on the WTO web-site. They can be 
downloaded at http://www.wto.org/english/ tratop_e/tpr_e/tp262.htm  
 • Secretariat report 
> Contents and summary observations  
> Economic environment  > Trade and investment regimes  
> Trade policies and practices by measure  
> Trade policies by sector  > Appendix tables  
• Government report  
• Chairperson’s concluding remarks  
• Minutes of the meeting (available appr oximately six weeks after the meeting). 
 
Note 
Trade Policy Reviews are an exercise, mandated in the WTO agreements, in which member countries’ trade and related policies are examined and evaluated at regular intervals. Significant 
developments that may have an impact on the global trading system are also monitored. For each review, two documents are prepared: a policy stat ement by the government of the member under 
review, and a detailed report written independently by the WTO Secretariat. These two documents 
are then discussed by the WTO’s full membership in  the Trade Policy Review Body (TPRB). These 
documents and the proceedings of the TPRB’s meetings are published shortly afterwards.  
 
Print copies of the TPR publications are available for sale from the WTO Secretariat, Centre William Rappard, 154 rue de Lausanne, 1211 Genève 21 and through the on-line bookshop at 
https://secure.vtx.ch/shop/boutiques/wto_index_boutique.html  or follow this path :  
www.wto.org >resources > publications > trade policy reviews   
The TPR publications are also available from our co-publisher Bernan Press , 4611-F Assembly 
Drive, Lanham, MD 20706-4391, United States  
Next reviews: 
United Arab Emirates : 24 and 26 April 2006 
Uruguay : 17 and 19 May 2006 
Iceland : 7 and 9 June 2006 
 For a full list of previous trade policy reviews and the full programme of future reviews go to 
http://www.wto.org/english/trat op_e/tpr_e/tpr_ e.htm#reviews 
or follow this path : www.wto.org > trade topics > trade policy reviews  
 
END