China became one of the top four in the world in 2004; afterwards the review was
changed to a biennial one. The WTO conducted the 2nd, 3rd and 4th reviews on
China in May, 2008, late May—early June, 2010 and June, 2012 respectively.^19
6.3.1.1 The Main Concerns of the EU
Four reviews indicated that the EU’s concerns about China mainly concerned
overall market openness (market access), transparency, non-tariff barriers to trade
(such as SPS, TBT, domestic regulations, domestic standard and certification
procedure), intellectual property protection and law enforcement, export subsidies
and export credit, export control, industry policy, government procurement, gov-
ernment’s intervention in the market, further opening of the service industry and
investmentfield, and some specific measures which may constitute discrimination
treatments of foreign countries (e.g. computer reservation service and original brand
requirements, etc.). The above issues were covered in almost each review by the EU
and were accompanied by specific requirements. Almost all of the measures
involved in complaintsfiled against China by the EU under the dispute settlement
mechanism were repeatedly covered in reviews.
6.3.1.2 The EU’s Overall Evaluation of China
The EU had a relatively consistent tone, dominated by praise and encouragement
and supplemented by blame and criticism, on China’s trade policy and practice,
China’s overall performance in the WTO and its development of bilateral trade
relations. The EU mostly gave positive evaluation in three other reviews except the
second review in which the EU had a somewhat negative attitude in 2008.
The EU appreciated China for carrying out reforms, fostering balanced envi-
ronmental and social development, thus encouraging China to take measures,
Table 6.2 Basic information concerning the WTO trade policy reviews which China and the EU
have undergone respectively (since 2003)*
Member Review time
China 2006.4 2008.5 2010.5–2015.6 2012.6
EU 2004.10 2007.2 2009.4 2011.7
*For details, seehttp://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/tpr_e/tp_rep_e.htm#bycountry
(^19) For China, besides the regular trade policy review mechanism, a transitional review mechanism
is also specially adopted for China’s trade policy in thefirst ten years after China’s accession to the
WTO, which is the portion undertaken at China’s accession to the WTO and goes beyond the
member’s obligations. Transitional review is annually conducted by three WTO councils and
committees. The EU is one of the most active members. Interestingly, the EU was relatively stiff in
its attitude in transitional reviews and generally criticized China’s performance, but softened its
tone in regular reviews, which was exactly contrary to the USA.
130 L. Heng