GAO-03-797R China-WTO Database 

United States General Accounting Office 

Washington, DC 20548 

June 13, 2003 

The Honorable Charles E. Grassley 

Chairman 

The Honorable Max Baucus 

Ranking Minority Member 

Committee on Finance 

United States Senate 

The Honorable William M. Thomas 

Chairman 

The Honorable Charles B. Rangel 

Ranking Minority Member 

Committee on Ways and Means 

House of Representatives 

Subject: GAO’s Electronic Database of China’s World Trade Organization 

Commitments 

China’s December 2001 accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) signified 

that the world’s seventh largest economy and the United State’s fourth largest trading 

partner would be subject to the multilateral organization’s trade liberalizing 

requirements. China’s accession agreement is a set of legal documents totaling more 

than 800 pages. In order to fulfill its WTO commitments, China will have to 

undertake numerous actions over the next 10 years, ranging from reducing or 

eliminating tariffs to improving the transparency of trade-related rules and 

regulations. 

An understanding of the terms of China’s WTO accession is essential to judging 

whether China is adhering to these commitments. On October 3, 2002, we issued a 

report to you entitled World Trade Organization: Analysis of China’s Commitments 

to Other Members, GAO-03-4. That report analyzed the agreement between China 

and WTO members, including the United States, that allowed China to accede to the 

WTO. The agreement sets forth China’s commitments—or legally binding pledges—

to other WTO members and describes how China will adhere to the organization’s 

underlying agreements, principles, rules, and specific procedures. Because of the 

length and complexity of the accession agreement, we created an electronic database 

of the major components of the agreement in order to conduct our analysis. We are 

releasing this database publicly today to assist members of Congress and their staffs, 

U.S. executive branch agencies, and other interested parties in analyzing, monitoring, 

and enforcing China’s WTO commitments. 
2 GAO-03-797R China-WTO Database

Users can search the database to identify China’s WTO commitments and to access 

some of the key results of our analysis as described in our October 2002 report. In 

our analysis, we identified nearly 700 individual commitments concerning how China 

is expected to reform its trade regime, as well as commitments that liberalize market 

access for more than 7,000 goods and nine broad services sectors. The database 

allows users to search the more than 800 pages of the agreement based on broad 

subject areas (such as intellectual property rights or import regulation) or on specific 

key words, sectors, and products (such as transparency, agriculture, or automobiles). 

It combines information on commitments China made relating to tariffs and nontariff 

measures (such as quotas) into one source so that users can quickly identify all the 

different types of barriers that foreign products face. The database also allows users 

to search China’s commitments relating to services based on a specific sector, mode 

of delivery, or the types of limitations that China specified (such as limitations that 

require foreign service providers to partner with a Chinese company). In summary, 

the flexibility and comprehensiveness of the database can enable users to quickly and 

more efficiently analyze China’s commitments. 

Background

In recognizing the scope and importance of China’s commitments, Congress has 

provided significant resources to executive branch agencies to enhance the 

government’s ability to monitor and enforce China’s compliance with its accession 

agreement. Monitoring and enforcing China’s compliance has proved to be a 

complex and challenging task, as demonstrated by our recent report, World Trade 

Organization: First-Year U.S. Efforts to Monitor China’s Compliance, GAO-03-461. 

Those who monitor China’s compliance with its accession agreement can benefit 

from having access to useful tools to identify and study particular obligations. Our 

database is one such tool that may be of use in your own efforts, as well as those of 

the executive branch, other WTO members, and the U.S. business community. 

Enclosure I provides a brief description of our database and how to download it. 

Enclosure II provides a brief summary of our analysis and some minor modifications 

we made to the classification of certain commitments. 

We provided a draft of this database to U.S. Trade Representative, Commerce, State, 

Agriculture, and other agency officials for their technical comments, which we have 

incorporated into the database as appropriate. 

---------------------------------- 

We are sending copies of this correspondence and database to interested 

congressional committees and executive branch agencies. Copies of this 

correspondence and access to the database will be made available at no charge on 

the GAO Web site at http://www.gao.gov. 
3 GAO-03-797R China-WTO Database

If you have questions regarding this correspondence, please contact me on (202) 512-

4128 or Adam Cowles, Assistant Director, on (202) 512-9637. Other major 

contributors to this correspondence and to the development of the database include 

Matthew Helm and Timothy Wedding. 

Susan S. Westin 

Managing Director 

International Affairs and Trade 
4 GAO-03-797R China-WTO Database

Enclosure I

Description of the Database

Our electronic database of China’s World Trade Organization (WTO) commitments is 

a single Microsoft (MS) Access file and requires users to have MS Access 2000 to 

open the file. It includes instructions and tips for using the database along with 

definitions of the source data. The database has three main searchable tables: (1) the 

text of the agreement, (2) China’s tariff and nontariff measures on foreign goods, and 

(3) China’s schedule of services commitments. In addition, the database includes our 

identification and classification of individual commitments from the texts, as well as 

our classification of particular types of limitations described in China’s services 

schedule.1 However, the database does not include the list of subsidies China notified 

the WTO of (Annex 5) or certain WTO members’ reservations to the agreement 

(Annex 7).2

In the process of preparing the database for public distribution, we added other 

categories to our analysis of China’s commitments that were not included in the 

October 2002 report. These additional categories did not change the total number of 

commitments we identified but did modify slightly the groupings that we reported. 

Enclosure II to this correspondence briefly describes our analysis and the updated 

categories. 

How To Download the Database 

The database can be accessed on GAO’s Web site at the following URL: 

http://www.gao.gov/special.pubs/gaochnawtodb.zip. This file is a self-extracting zip 

file that includes the MS Access database (GAO’s China-WTO Database.mdb), text 

files of the underlying data tables, China’s original WTO accession agreement, and a 

summary file (readme.txt) that explains the various files included. Users should 

download the zip file to their computers’ hard drive and then double- click on the file 

to extract the individual files to a location on their hard drive. In order to use the full 

database, users need to have MS Access 2000 installed on their computers. However, 

the text files of the underlying data tables can be imported into any database or 

spreadsheet program for users without MS Access 2000. 

Please note that some users may have trouble downloading a zip file depending on 

whether their agency's or company's fire wall permits it. If you are unable to 

download this file, we may be able to send you a copy by another means. Please refer 

to the contact information at the end of the letter portion of this product. 

 

1

 For a description of the scope and methodology for this analysis, see U.S. General Accounting Office, 

World Trade Organization: Analysis of China’s Commitments to Other Members, GAO-03-4 

(Washington, D.C.: Oct. 3, 2002). 

2

 The subsidies notification is a description of Chinese subsidy programs and is not easily converted 

into a useful format for a database. The reservations annex lists restrictions that seven WTO members 

(other than the United States) intend to maintain on certain imports from China following accession. 

Both annexes can be downloaded from the WTO Web site. 
5 GAO-03-797R China-WTO Database

Enclosure II

Description of Our Analysis and Updated Categories

As part of the analysis in our report World Trade Organization: Analysis of China’s 

Commitments to Other Members, GAO-03-4 (Washington, D.C.: Oct. 3, 2002), we 

identified seven types of commitments included in the Protocol and Working Party 

report of China’s accession agreement. In table 3 (p. 12) of the report we listed the 

number of commitments of each type by the area of the agreement. In the process of 

preparing the database for public distribution, we made some minor adjustments to 

that analysis. These changes did not affect the overall number of commitments we 

identified nor the number in each trade area. The changes affected the classification 

of only a few types of commitments within particular areas. In addition, we are 

reporting an eighth type of commitment, which we identify in the database as 

“practices.” Commitments of this type require China to create, modify, or repeal an 

existing practice (that is not specified as a law or regulation) in order to comply with 

a WTO requirement. Table 1 presents our updated analysis of the number of China’s 

commitments by area and type. 

Table 1: Type and Number of China WTO Trade Regime Commitments, by Area 

Area 

Number of commitments in area Definitional Reporting requirement Transparency Laws and regulations Practices Guidance Adhere to WTO Nondiscrimination Other 

General 20 3 4 0 0 0 0 3 0 10 

Trade framework 82 4 10 19 19 3 31 12 24 7 

Import regulation 227 16 37 31 15 33 111 38 24 13 

Export regulation 9 0 3 1 1 3 2 3 0 1 

Trading rights and 

industrial policies 

117 6 22 7 2 29 31 22 10 21 

Agriculture 101 8 11 13 3 11 64 11 5 4 

Services 45 9 6 5 1 4 23 3 2 4 

Intellectual property 

rights 

34 9 2 1 15 5 9 21 2 1 

Safeguards and trade 

remedies 

70 3 8 0 1 2 10 12 0 45 

Total 705 58 103 77 57 90 281 125 67 106 

Source: GAO analysis of China’s WTO accession agreement. 

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