[00:14.07]The World Trade Organization(WTO) and China
[00:18.34]As China has been admitted
[00:22.06]to the World Trade Organization (WTO),
[00:24.90]it is very apt at this time
[00:27.42]to compile some important data
[00:29.60]about this international organization.
[00:32.13]The conception of the WTO
[00:35.19]took place during the 1995 Uruguay
[00:39.69]round of talks of the General Agreement
[00:41.39]on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).
[00:43.80]The WTO actually replaced GATT.
[00:47.96]This latter organization,
[00:49.70]a composite of many countries,
[00:51.79]was formed after the Second World War
[00:54.41]to preside over the stabilization
[00:57.04]of trade among nations.
[00:58.79]The new organization, the WTO,
[01:03.05]is dedicated to allocating the resources
[01:06.55]of the world by using fairer trade practices
[01:09.61]and providing economic security
[01:12.35]for the more vulnerable,
[01:13.99]less developed nations.
[01:15.64]The WTO provides the apparatus
[01:19.57]for making this happen through increased cooperation
[01:22.20]among member countries.
[01:23.95]The execution of such agreements
[01:27.23]will be instrumental in enhancing the esteem
[01:30.30]of less developed members and
[01:32.48]will provide a more stable infrastructure
[01:35.11]for profitable trade for members of the WTO.
[01:38.28]Is there a way to describe in simple terms
[01:43.10]what this is all about?
[01:45.06]What underlies this international pursuit
[01:48.24]of free trade among nations?
[01:50.31]Students of introductory Economics
[01:53.49]would recognize the theory of
[01:55.35]“comparative advantage”.
[01:56.77]Briefly, this economic theory states that
[02:01.25]a country can produce all or most goods
[02:04.32]and services more efficiently than
[02:07.27]most or all other countries,
[02:09.79]but still gain from specializing in production
[02:12.63]and trading with other nations.
[02:14.61]They not only receive economic benefits
[02:17.95]for themselves, but also help other countries
[02:21.02]achieve similar benefits in the process.
[02:23.54]Let's look at a simple example.
[02:26.60]Assume that there are two countries,
[02:29.22]Alpha and Beta,
[02:31.08]that produce the same two products,
[02:33.60]bananas and office desks,
[02:35.68]and nothing else.
[02:37.43]We will assume that
[02:39.79]each country has 200 units of productive resources
[02:43.96](resources such as land,
[02:45.92]labour and capital,
[02:47.57]used in the production of bananas and desks).
[02:50.08]In this case we will use labour.
[02:53.04]Before trading each country,
[02:55.55]using the productive resources each has available,
[02:58.72]might produce the following combinations:
[03:01.35]Bananas（tons）
[03:04.65]Alpha 300 (100 units of labour)
[03:08.92]Beta 100(100 units)
[03:13.06]Totals 400
[03:16.02]Desks Alpha 100 (100 units)
[03:21.27]Beta 25 (100 units)
[03:25.21]Totals 125
[03:27.84]Assuming that each country
[03:30.79]used the same amount of productive resources
[03:33.09]in the production of both bananas and desks,
[03:36.04]you will notice that
[03:38.45]Alpha produced more bananas
[03:39.98]and more desks than Beta
[03:41.95]but produced desks more efficiently
[03:44.36](higher ratio 4∶1) than bananas (3∶1).
[03:48.41]Alpha produced four times
[03:50.92]as many desks as Beta
[03:52.78]given equal units of resources (100 units)
[03:56.28]and three times as many bananas as Beta.
[03:59.23]Alpha has a comparative advantage
[04:02.62]in producing desks and therefore
[04:04.81]could make economic gains
[04:07.23]by transferring some of its labour resources
[04:09.74]into the production of desks.
[04:12.48]If the two countries were agreeable
[04:14.86]to specialize and trade with each other,
[04:16.94]the following might be possible:
[04:19.14]Bananas（tons）
[04:21.98]Alpha 210(70 units)
[04:25.92]Beta 200(200 units)
[04:29.53]Total410
[04:32.71]Desks Alpha 130(130 units)
[04:39.05]Beta 0(0 units)
[04:42.44]Total 130
[04:45.07]This example shows that,
[04:47.47]by specialization by each partner,
[04:49.77]total production of bananas
[04:51.96]would increase from 400 tons to 410 tons
[04:56.01]and the production of desks
[04:58.52]would increase from 125 to 130 desks.
[05:03.12]This means that more of each product
[05:06.62]would be available to both countries
[05:08.81]to share through specialization and trade.
[05:11.33]This may be an oversimplification
[05:14.47]of the concept of comparative advantage,
[05:16.77]but it is the economic principle
[05:19.40]which explains why countries want more free trade,
[05:22.68]and why China wants to join the WTO.
[05:25.74]It also explains
[05:28.26]the United State's ambitious pursuit
[05:30.55]of freer trade arrangements
[05:32.31]throughout the world.
[05:33.40]Immersed for more than a decade
[05:35.80]in ne?gotiations,
[05:37.56]the climax has been reached for China.
[05:39.42]Its official membership in the WTO
[05:42.04]commenced in December 2001.
[05:45.33]It has not been an easy road
[05:47.73]to reach this goal and the country
[05:49.76]will now embark upon an even tougher road
[05:52.61]of more formidable challenges.
[05:54.15]Many issues surrounding China's bid
[05:57.54]are not only economic,
[05:59.39]but also social in nature.
[06:01.25]For example, the United States
[06:04.10]has amplified the issue of human rights
[06:06.62]in discussions between itself and China.
[06:09.46]The reasons for this obsession
[06:11.87]over human rights are not readily evident,
[06:14.28]but in some quarters suggestions
[06:17.23]for it have been offered.
[06:18.43]Since the end of the Cold War,
[06:20.40]and the demise (or fall) of the Soviet Union,
[06:24.01]the United States has had no clear opponent
[06:27.29]to justify the work of its many agencies
[06:29.92]that were originally assimilated to
[06:32.98]deal with former Cold War opponents.
[06:35.06]The promotion of international human rights
[06:38.45]allegedly has filled part of this void,
[06:40.86]to become the major target
[06:43.05]of the new direction
[06:44.25]in American foreign policy,
[06:45.67]and it has become commonplace
[06:47.65]for China in particular.
[06:49.28]It should be noted that
[06:52.13]there are some current members
[06:53.77]of the WTO that have worse human rights records
[06:57.56]than that of China but were
[06:59.54]not treated in the same manner.
[07:01.07]Also, it is erroneous to suggest that
[07:04.57]the United States itself is completely innocent
[07:07.30]of human rights violations.
[07:09.05]This is a major contradiction
[07:11.90]in current American foreign policy.
[07:13.98]It is also suggested that
[07:16.82]the real threat to the United States
[07:18.57]is that China is a huge country
[07:20.65]with a robust economy that
[07:22.95]has been growing by leaps
[07:24.48]and bounds over the last twenty years.
[07:27.00]Henceforth, a fear is growing that
[07:31.05]the potential economic strength of China
[07:33.12]will threaten the prevalent position
[07:35.86]of the United States in world affairs.
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