The problem in context

China's accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001, following fifteen years of difficult negotiations, was a watershed event both for the WTO and its members and for China. Chinese government officials and those who followed the progress of the negotiations over the years knew that accession would bring with it the necessity of a large number of reforms in domestic economic policies, many of which would require adapting the outlook of Chinese business establishments. Those who understood the WTO also knew that it would be difficult to implement certain of the accession-related changes in ways that met the expectations of China's trading partners.

WTO membership also brought with it the opportunity to take advantage of new market access opportunities and new protections now available to China under the rules-based system of the WTO. As a non-member of the WTO, China found that its exports were often the subject of discriminatory treatment in overseas markets. In addition, as a country that was making the transition from a centrally planned economy to one where market forces would set prices and determine resource allocation, China often sawits exporting enterprises subjected to anti-dumping actions that treated Chinese exporters unfairly – often because of China's designation as a ‘non-market economy’.

Shanghai has been at the forefront of China's economic reforms and opening-up to the outside world, and has played the leading role in China's adaptation to world trade rules.