Overview of the post-transition period of WTO
I. Division of the post-transition period of WTO
According to the provisions of the World Trade Organization, in order to minimize the negative impact of market opening on members, some members are allowed to keep a certain period of time to adjust their domestic laws and regulations. The arrangement of the transition period in WTO is mainly to adopt time-limited preferential treatment for developing country members, so as to ensure greater participation in the WTO.
in the negotiation of China's accession to the WTO, we also strive for a transitional period. According to the Protocol on the Accession of the People's Republic of China, after China's accession to the WTO, there will be a transition period of 3-5 years (that is, from December 11, 21 to December 11, 26) for tariff concessions, reduction and elimination of non-tariff measures and opening up of service trade. According to the time characteristics of tariff concession and market opening in the whole transition period, the transition period can be divided into two stages. The first transition period refers to a period of time from the end of 21 to 24, when China began to fulfill its obligations of tariff reduction, flexibly open up service trade, and protect and subsidize the service industry to a certain extent. The post-transition period refers to the last period of time when China's commitment to opening up in major fields is close to the end after China's accession to WTO, from the end of 24 to the end of 26.
second, the main characteristics of the latter transition period compared with the former transition period
according to the commitment of the Chinese government to join the WTO, the intensity and scope of China's market opening in the latter transition period will obviously exceed the previous three years. Compared with the former transition period, the latter transition period mainly has the following characteristics:
(1) the reduction of tariff rate
By the end of 24, the average tariff level in China had dropped from 42.7% in 1992 to 1.4%, and the tariff reduction rate had been very large. As promised, China's average tariff level will be further reduced to 1.1% in 25 and 1% in 28. Therefore, the scope of China's tariff concessions will be greatly reduced in the post-transition period of WTO.
(II) Increased market transparency
In the latter transition period, the transparency of the domestic market has been further enhanced, and the overall market environment has been continuously optimized, which is mainly manifested in the following aspects: the Chinese government has kept its promise when it joined the WTO, and constantly cleaned up, abolished and formulated relevant foreign trade laws and regulations; Our government's administrative efficiency has been continuously improved, and its service consciousness has been continuously enhanced.
(3) The competition in the domestic market is more intense
In the latter transition period, China's nine major departments, including commerce, communication, construction, distribution, education, environment, finance, tourism and transportation, and about 9 branches will further expand their openness, and the fields of foreign investment will increase substantially. With the gradual weakening of non-tariff protection measures, especially the protection of infant industries, the competition of foreign manufacturers for China's market will become more intense and the impact will be significantly increased.
(D) Increased pressure to deal with overseas trade protectionism
In the latter transition period, the trade friction between other WTO members and China will increase, and anti-dumping, countervailing and safeguard measures from abroad (referred to as "two anti-subsidies and one safeguard") will become the main risks borne by domestic export products in the latter transition period. In addition, some countries frequently use non-tariff barriers such as quality, technology, hygiene and environmental protection standards, which will bring more to the overseas trade environment.
opportunities for the development of small and medium-sized enterprise clusters in the post-transition period of p>WTO
Since the reform and opening up, small and medium-sized enterprise clusters in some parts of China have made great progress, not only occupying an important position in the domestic market, but also making impressive achievements in the international market, and products with the logo of "Made in China" have entered the global market. After entering the post-transition period of WTO, with the deepening of China's economic opening to the outside world, every enterprise or industry in China, as well as the whole national economic and social development, will be deeply affected. Small and medium-sized enterprise clusters have gained great benefits from regional economic opening in the past, and what development opportunities will they face at this time? Can this dynamic economic organization adapt to environmental changes, seize opportunities and gain new vitality? Next, we will combine the characteristics of small and medium-sized enterprise clusters to explore the main development opportunities that small and medium-sized enterprise clusters can grasp in the post-transition period of WTO.
first, a more open market environment
before joining the WTO, China has been excluded from the multilateral trading system, mainly relying on bilateral consultations and agreements to coordinate foreign economic and trade relations, which seriously affects the development of international markets by Chinese enterprises. Although the small and medium-sized enterprise clusters that go abroad early have strong comparative advantages, they are in a very passive position because they often suffer from discriminatory treatment in foreign trade policies and cannot conduct fair trade exchanges. Even in China, local governments protect the local market to a certain extent and introduce various discriminatory policies, which may lead to difficulties for small and medium-sized enterprise clusters to open up markets across regions, increasing transaction costs and weakening competitiveness. Since joining WTO, this situation has greatly improved. After the adjustment of domestic and foreign governments' trade policies in the first transition period, the market environment in which China's small and medium-sized enterprise clusters are located is becoming more and more open, which will be more conducive to the small and medium-sized enterprise clusters to play their own advantages and further become bigger and stronger.
(1) Cost advantages of small and medium-sized enterprise clusters
In the post-transition period of WTO, under the principle of multilateral and stable MFN treatment, Chinese enterprises and consumers can conduct more extensive economic and trade exchanges with those of other WTO members, and enjoy the benefits brought by the multilateral trading system and economic globalization. But in practice, we clearly realize that this kind of benefit is not automatically enjoyed, but only belongs to those enterprises with open characteristics and international comparative advantages. In most cases, these enterprises are often well-known global enterprises. But for China, at present, we are still very short of such global large enterprises, and it is the small and medium-sized enterprise clusters rooted in the country that really have the international competitive advantage. This is because, if compared globally, China's small and medium-sized enterprise clusters are mainly concentrated in labor-intensive industries, which give full play to the largest local resource advantages-rich labor resources and low labor prices, so it has a very significant low-cost competitive advantage. According to experts' estimation, China's labor price is only one twentieth of that of developed countries, while that of mainland China is only one tenth of that of Taiwan Province and Hongkong, and only one third of that of many Southeast Asian countries. At the same time, the formation of small and medium-sized enterprise clusters stems from economic opening. From the perspective of regional distribution, China's small and medium-sized enterprise clusters are mainly concentrated in coastal areas, especially in Zhejiang and Guangdong provinces. It not only adapts to the fierce competition among different manufacturers within the cluster, but also adapts to the changes in the external market environment of the cluster, and is very good at grasping external opportunities. Small and medium-sized enterprise clusters are developed in an open and competitive environment. In this sense, small and medium-sized enterprise clusters are the beneficiaries of market opening, and a more open market means more opportunities and higher returns.
(II) Improvement of the international trade environment
In the post-transition period of WTO, with the gradual familiarity and adaptation to WTO policies, Chinese governments and enterprises can seek to improve the international trade environment according to the basic principles under the WTO framework.
first, the status of market economy. When China has not yet joined the WTO, once foreign countries put forward anti-dumping against Chinese enterprises, they will automatically be treated as non-market economy, and all enterprises involved will adopt the substitute country price to calculate anti-dumping duties. Enterprises have suffered very heavy losses and often have to withdraw from foreign markets. In the Protocol on the Accession of the People's Republic of China, although the problem of China's market economy status has not been completely solved, it is still very different from before, and Chinese enterprises have the opportunity to win the market economy status through struggle. According to Article 15 of the Protocol, if the producers under investigation can clearly prove that the industries producing the same kind of products have market economy conditions in manufacturing, producing and selling the products, and they have not received government subsidies, vicious competition or made false accounts, then domestic prices or costs can be adopted. In fact, this provides a way out for domestic enterprises suffering from anti-dumping investigations. At present, there are many successful cases. In the post-transition period of WTO, with the familiarity with relevant rules, China's small and medium-sized enterprise clusters can better protect themselves and avoid unnecessary trade disputes; On the other hand, we can strive to break foreign trade barriers and open up the international market.
second, the multilateral trading system provides a safe channel for exports. In the process of integrating into the international economy, small and medium-sized enterprise clusters urgently need to seek controllability in the risk of globalization and predictability in the complexity of globalization. Under the framework of WTO, the trade system and multilateral trade system of each member country are more transparent, more stable, more predictable and safer, which is conducive to reducing business risks and safeguarding their own trade interests.
thirdly, the basic principles under the WTO framework aim at achieving fair trade, which is mainly reflected in the market mechanism of fair competition. This system requires the competition among member countries to be more legal and standardized, thus ensuring the fairness of competition. This is an extremely important external environment for small and medium-sized enterprise clusters, which is conducive to realizing export interests and tapping market potential of small and medium-sized enterprise clusters.
(III) Improvement of domestic market environment
The external environment of small and medium-sized enterprise clusters in the post-transition period of p>WTO has been greatly improved, which is not only reflected in the international market environment, but also in the domestic market environment. After joining WTO, a very important issue is to strengthen the integration of the domestic market. In the Protocol on the Accession of the People's Republic of China, the Chinese government promised to implement the trade system uniformly in all customs territories of China, including border trade areas, ethnic autonomous areas, special economic zones, coastal open cities, economic and technological development zones and other areas that have established special systems in terms of tariffs, domestic taxes and regulations; Commitment to apply and implement all laws, regulations and other measures of the central and local governments related to or affecting trade in goods, services, trade-related intellectual property rights or foreign exchange control in a unified, fair and reasonable manner; To undertake that the local laws, regulations and other measures of local governments shall conform to the obligations undertaken in the WTO Agreement and the Protocol on the Accession of the People's Republic of China. The relevant commitments of our government are conducive to reducing local protectionism and reducing trade barriers between regions.
Second, the expanding market scale
More than p>2 years ago, Adam Smith, the originator of western economics, pointed out in "A Study on the Nature and Causes of National Wealth" that the division of labor originated from the exchange capacity and the degree of division of labor, so it was always limited by the exchange capacity. All other factors being equal, the larger the scale of an enterprise, the higher the number of labor and machines and the degree of specialization. In other words, the upgrading of division of labor and the progress of technology depend on the continuous expansion of market scope (exchange capacity). After entering the industrial age, the industrialization development of every new technology and the economic progress driven by it are all based on the sufficient market scale. If a society lacks a sufficiently high level of division of labor and a sufficiently large relevant market, not only can new technologies not be invented, but even if they are invented, they cannot be widely promoted in business. After years of development, the internal division of labor of China's small and medium-sized enterprise clusters has reached a high level, which is mainly due to the large-scale domestic market. In the post-WTO transition period, with the deeper integration of small and medium-sized enterprise clusters into the international economic system and facing the huge international market, it will help to further upgrade their division of labor and obtain higher economic benefits.
(1) Small and medium-sized enterprise clusters and economies of scale
After China's entry into WTO, although "Made in China" has attracted global attention, no large-scale manufacturing enterprise in China has yet entered the ranks of world-class industrial enterprises. For the time being, China lacks large enterprises with international influence, which seems unable to enjoy the economies of scale brought by expanding the scale of enterprises and division of labor; However, the emergence and development of small and medium-sized enterprise clusters in China just make up for this defect. Taking the production of lighters as an example, entrepreneurs in Wenzhou dispersed more than 1 parts of lighters to more than 1, enterprises, forming a lighter production cluster, which can fully enjoy the economies of scale and avoid the scale diseconomy that may occur due to the increase of internal organization costs when the scale of a single enterprise is too large. In China's traditional manufacturing industry, small and medium-sized enterprise clusters such as lighter production have strong competitiveness, mainly because: first, with the expansion of production scale, expensive special technical equipment can be purchased and used more effectively within the cluster, further improving production efficiency and reducing production costs. Secondly, when the output scale of the whole small and medium-sized enterprise cluster reaches a certain level, the production process will be divided into small parts spontaneously within the cluster to fully enjoy the advantages of specialization and division of labor. Third, China's abundant and cheap labor resources have firmly supported the expansion of industrial scale.
(II) Improvement of exchange capacity in the later transition period
Economic globalization first started in developed countries, and then developing countries gradually became more and more dependent on the global market. Under the unified framework of WTO, today's global economic integration has become an irresistible trend. In the post-transition period of WTO, China's small and medium-sized enterprise clusters are faced with the opportunity to further expand the cluster scale, which is mainly due to the unprecedented expansion of market scope and the rapid improvement of exchange capacity.
first, the rapid development of transportation and communications. In the history of global economic development, the arrival of railway and aviation era is undoubtedly a very important event, which is called the revolution of transportation industry. In today's world, the influence of time and space on manufacturers has become less and less. The highly developed railway network, dotted road network and the rapid development of aviation and shipping industry have greatly enhanced business exchanges and accelerated the speed of commodity circulation. This is an important material basis for improving the exchange ability of global manufacturers. According to the Protocol on the Accession of the People's Republic of China, the Chinese government promises that foreign investors will be allowed to set up wholly-owned express delivery, road freight forwarding and freight forwarding enterprises by the end of 25 and wholly-owned railway freight forwarding enterprises by the end of 26. With the entry of foreign businessmen in the post-transition period of WTO, the transportation service industry linking China with the global economy will be more developed, and the exchange capacity between domestic and foreign commodity supply and demand will be stronger.
second, the development of the financial industry. According to our government's commitment when China joined WTO, foreign banks were allowed to provide RMB services to China enterprises at the end of 24, and will be allowed to provide comprehensive banking services at the end of 26. This is a great challenge to our government and domestic financial industry. But it is a great opportunity for enterprises in the market economy. The development of financial industry can not only alleviate the financing problem of small and medium-sized enterprise clusters,