In the US-China bilateral WTO agreement, China's commitment with regard to distribution is comprehensive, covering commission agents services, wholesaling, retailing and franchising. In each of these sectors, commitments on market access, national treatment and other areas have been made under which there are four forms of supplying services, including cross-border delivery, offshore consumption, commercial presence and movement of natural persons.
Market access is the most crucial of all issues.
This is bound to have a considerable impact on China's distribution enterprises, but will also bring them a host of business opportunities. In the opinion of Huang Hai, chief economist of the State Internal Trade Bureau, the impact of WTO entry on China's distribution sector should be acceptable. The market liberalisation measures currently adopted by China are already close to its WTO commitments. Although China only opened its commodity circulation to foreign participation a few years ago, considerable progress has been made. Following the consensus on distribution reached between China and the US in 1998 and China's move to further liberalise its market in 1999, existing policies for the opening of the retail sector already exceed the US-China agreement in geographical and quantitative terms.