《The Development of China#39;s FDI Laws and Policies After WTO Accession (二零一六)》.pdf

The Development of China’s FDI Laws 6 and Policies after WTO Accession Chunlai Chen Introduction Policies and reforms relating to foreign direct investment (FDI) have been among the most fundamental aspects of China’s economic reforms. During the past three decades, China’s change of attitude from restricting to passively attracting and then to actively selecting inward FDI has been fully reflected by the evolution of its FDI policies, laws and regulations. Given China’s global ranking as an FDI destination and the vast quantity of FDI inflows into its domestic economy (accumulative FDI inflows of about US$1000 billion during the past three decades), this reform process relating to FDI appears to have been extremely successful. After China’s accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 2001, China further liberalised its FDI regime in conformity with WTO rules and requirements. In terms of trade in goods, China progressively lowered its tariffs and phased out non-tariff measures, with its simple average tariff rate dropping from 42.9 per cent in 1992 to 15.3 per cent at the beginning of 2002, and further to 9.8 per cent in 2010. China has also made substantial commitments in services, opening up more sectors to international trade than any other WTO member. Furthermore, China agreed to fully implement the General Agreement on Trade- Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) to provide intellectual property rights protection and enforcement, while also committing to comprehensively implement the Agreement on Trade-Related Investment Measures (TRIMs) after entering into the WTO, and to reduce foreign investment barriers and to liberalise its FDI regime. China’s accession to the WTO has had a positive impact on its FDI policy regime, particularly with regard to national