South China Morning Post | By Allen T. Cheng | September 23, 2003
China not honouring its WTO promises, American report claims; Little progress is seen on financial services, agriculture and distribution
US corporations on the mainland are growing increasingly dissatisfied with the way the central government is implementing promises made in its accession agreement to the World Trade Organisation, a report said yesterday.
"There has been little progress in sensitive areas such as financial services, agriculture and distribution," said the report by the American Chamber of Commerce in China and the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai.
"It should therefore be no surprise that American firms express greater dissatisfaction with WTO implementation than was the case last year and a higher degree of scepticism about the intentions of the Chinese government."
The report said only one in five companies that responded to a survey believed the government was "willing, able and prepared to implement changes in the spirit of the WTO agreement".
A total of 206 companies responded to the survey, which was carried out in major cities on the mainland earlier this year.
"A total of 44 per cent of respondents feel that the government 'is willing, but ill-equipped or unprepared' to implement the changes," the report said.
"Fully 30 per cent of the respondents believe that China's government is 'willing to follow only the letter' of the WTO agreements, is 'actively seeking loopholes' or is 'unwilling to implement required changes'."
According to its accession agreement, China will allow foreign investment into almost all industries except for sensitive defence- related ones. The report, 2003 White Paper: American Business in China, cited various deficiencies. For instance, mainland officials now required foreign securities houses to have capital requirements that were "far in excess of international norms" for entering the China market even though the government promised it would follow international norms to set capital standards.
The report was not all doom and gloom, however.
US corporations also reported that their sales performance had improved in the past year.South China Morning Post:
