Appliance makers such as Haier, Guangdong Kelon and Konka have even moved abroad. Much the same phenomenon is at work in the computer industry. The increased competition hurt Legend at the start, says Liu, but then the company became a sales agent for a number of foreign brands including Hewlett-Packard, Toshiba, IBM and Microsoft. Through its relationships with such companies, Liu says Legend improved its quality control, logistics and marketing strategy. So the Chinese market has expanded with competition, but Chinese companies have improved their performance, too.
Legend is now a major player in the Asian PC market.
Textiles and clothing products make up more than one quarter of China's total exports. After China enters the WTO, and if the U.S. lifts its quotas on textiles, Three Gun expects to at least double its exports to the U.S. Chinese exporters wouldn't be the only ones to benefit from WTO membership. Perhaps the biggest advantages would fall to companies that import components and raw materials. Cheaper imports would allow companies to cut prices and improve their competitiveness in the international market, says Xiao Geng, a professor of economics at the University of Hong Kong. If you apply tariffs on imports you create a lot of inefficiencies.