Service Sector in China After its Accession to the WTO

Abstract

China's membership to the World Trade Organization (WTO) has given a new dimension to the conduct of world business. With this, China has made a radical departure from its past and brought in a whole range of changes as far as the processes of opening up and liber-alization are concerned. Its services sector is presently experiencing a radical reforms programme in accordance with China's commitments under the General Agreement in Trade and Services (GATS). It is set to eliminate restrictions of all kinds in a couple of years. How-ever, the slow reform process coupled with a continuation of restrictions with regard to some specific sectors are delaying the gains, which could have otherwise been realized. Yet China's services sector yields good results. The geographical restrictions on services liberalization, for instance, have allowed economic activities to get concentrated in specific areas resulting in regional disparity. On the whole, services liberalization affirms that putting a proper regulatory framework in place and appropriate sequencing of reforms may yield good results for China.