Right now, China's greatest demand is for low-value manufacturing goods. The U.S. pact does not address transport directly, although the tightly-controlled air trade between the nations was liberalized somewhat in a pact agreed to earlier in 1999. Instead, air operators are hoping liberalized trade sparks internal economic growth and demand for Western goods, triggering more demand for quality service and for looser restrictions on freight operations. In the long-term, of course, the WTO agreement can't help but have a major impact. In fact, China turned out to be an unlikely haven for transport operators who were pummeled by Asia's currency crisis in 1997 and 1998.
Traffic is quite strong.
The global express operators have been there for years, and United Parcel Service has called out the big political guns to win rights to match Federal Express freighter service. Air freight forwarders have scrambled to set up offices over the past two years, including full logistics centers in the industrial areas around Shanghai and Guangzho in southern China. When the new Pudong International Airport outside Shanghai opened recently, Lufthansa Cargo was on hand as a part of the joint venture operating the new cargo terminal. There are probably 300 million households in China that would need telephones eventually. Intel opened a semiconductor assembly plant in China two years ago and Western automakers have recently expanded their business there.