China's WTO entry benefits U.S., global growth

-- China's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) two decades ago "has allowed the world to share in the fruits of China's domestic development successes."

-- It is undeniable that since joining the WTO in 2001, China has been advancing economic globalization with openness as a hallmark and shared prosperity as a vision.

-- Over the last two decades, the country's continuous efforts in widening opening-up have brought its development to a new stage and injected fresh impetus into the world economy.

China's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) two decades ago "has allowed the world to share in the fruits of China's domestic development successes," said Albert Keidel, adjunct graduate professor at George Washington University.

In the past 20 years, China's global ranking of trade in goods has risen from the sixth to the first, while that of its trade in services has jumped from the 11th to the second.

Just as Keidel, also former senior economist in the World Bank's Beijing office, put it, apart from lower prices from China's "powerful productivity benefits," the Asian giant's entry into the WTO also offered "opportunities and development challenges for the rest of the world."

It is undeniable that since joining the WTO in 2001, China has been advancing economic globalization with openness as a hallmark and shared prosperity as a vision.

A container ship of China's COSCO Shipping docks at a new container terminal of the Port of Long Beach in California, the United States, Aug. 20, 2021. (Xinhua/Gao Shan)

BENEFITS FOR U.S. ECONOMY

Among all economies in the world, the United States has substantially benefited from China's WTO entry in multiple areas including consumption, investment and trade.

China's WTO entry has been "a boon for Chinese producers and U.S. consumers," Sourabh Gupta, a senior fellow at the Institute for China-America Studies, told Xinhua.

The cost of consumer electronics and numerous daily necessities which impact pocketbook budgets of American households has been bid down by China's exceptional cost competitiveness and medium technology-intensive manufacturing, said Gupta.

Khairy Tourk, professor of economics with the Stuart School of Business at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, said American consumers have benefited from the continuous reduction in the prices of manufactured goods made in China.

"If you look at the business sector here, we see that there is a lot of profitable opportunities for manufacturing and selling in China. Foreign direct investors are now beating a path to China's door," said Tourk.

China has overtaken the United States as the world's top destination for new foreign direct investment, which explains why companies like Apple expand their operations in China, and Tesla built a factory in Shanghai, noted the professor.