It also holds the second largest bilateral trade deficit with the United States, behind Japan. So we better get it right. And that means taking the time to get it right. In the long run, the best hope for stabilizing trade relations lies in China's accession to the World Trade Organization on commercial, as opposed to political, terms. This would bind China to the open market principles that undergird the global trading system.
China is both a developing country and one of the largest economies in the world.
But it's going to be a lot harder than it sounds. Already we hear some say that it would be better to get China into the WTO quickly and then sort out our disagreements. And we hear others say that China should be let in as soon as it offers more meaningful market access. In my judgment, both of these schools of thought head us in the wrong direction. First, our main leverage with China lies in negotiating the terms of accession.