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China and the World Trading System
Author(s) -
Mattoo Aaditya,
Subramanian Arvind
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
the world economy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.594
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1467-9701
pISSN - 0378-5920
DOI - 10.1111/twec.12017
Subject(s) - bilateralism , china , openness to experience , international trade , incentive , economics , negotiation , international economics , liberalization , order (exchange) , scope (computer science) , regionalism (politics) , business , multilateralism , political science , market economy , finance , politics , psychology , social psychology , computer science , law , democracy , programming language
The WTO has been until recently an effective framework for cooperation because it has continually adapted to changing economic realities. The current Doha Agenda is an aberration because it does not reflect one of the biggest shifts in the international economic and trading system: the rise of China. Even though China will have a stake in maintaining trade openness, an initiative that builds on but redefines the Doha Agenda would anchor China more fully in the multilateral trading system. Such an initiative would have two pillars. First, a new negotiating agenda that would include the major issues of interest to China and its trading partners and thus unleash the powerful reciprocal liberalisation mechanism that has driven the WTO process to previous successes. Second, new restraints on bilateralism and regionalism that would help preserve incentives for maintaining the current broadly non‐discriminatory trading order.