Completing the WTO accession negotiations: Issues and challenges

This paper is laid out as follows. We outline the importance of WTO applicants in the global economy. We then discuss the major economic issues in admitting transition economies to the WTO. Some of these issues, especially the impact of trade liberalisation resulting from WTO accession by these economies, are further examined in Section 4, using a global general equilibrium model. In Section 5, we examine China's WTO accession as a case study. The issue is approached in the broad context of political economy as well as economic analysis. The paper concludes with brief remarks on strategies of WTO accession for transition economies.