China now is an indispensable part of world trade and a pillar force in global economic expansion while the US trade representative office has accused China of not honoring its World Trade Organization (WTO) promises. Is there any truth to the accusation?

China has been accelerating the pace of its economic opening up since it joined the WTO in 2001. The country scrapped approval for foreign trade in 2004, allowing private and foreign companies to operate with a simple registration. In 2005, China removed non-tariff barriers such as quotas and import licenses on more than 400 products. 

Those efforts paid off as private and foreign companies' foreign trade volume made up about 84 percent of the total in 2017.

“As early as in 2010, China had reduced tariffs as promised for trade in goods. The overall tariff rate was down to 9.8 percent from 15.3 percent in 2001. Since then, China has used temporary rates to reduce tariffs. For trade in services, China opened 100 sectors as promised in 2007,” said Wang Shouwen, Vice Minister of China's Commerce Ministry.

Moreover, trade with China contributed to US economic growth over the past 10 years. Trade volume between the two countries rose from 334 billion US dollars to 570 billion in 2017. China has become the US' third largest export destination for goods and the largest for services, as well as American largest import source. 

“Inexpensive goods from China saved costs for US companies and families. The savings per household is between 800 and 1,200 US dollars. Inexpensive imports from China also allowed the US economy to maintain low unemployment levels and acceptable inflation,” said Professor Jin Canrong from Renmin University of China.

Trades between China and the US account for 20 percent of total global trade while bilateral investments account for 30 percent of total global foreign direct investments. 

Since 2002, China contributed about 30 percent to of all global economic expansion. Meanwhile, since 2001, China's imports grew at 13.5 percent on an annual average. It is now the second largest import country after the US. About one-fifth of the exports from the least developed countries are purchased by China. The economic ties between China and the US have not only benefited the two countries but many other countries around the world.