After five years in the WTO, China has completed its transition period as a WTO member. Membership in the WTO exerts great impetus on the process of restructuring the economic system and affects the way the economy is managed. It also provides China the opportunity to play a large and growing role in the world economy. For the full potential of the post-accession era to be realized, however, China needs to address a series of challenges associated with “at-the-border” and “behind-the-border” issues, such as:

• Implementing the structural adjustments required by the WTO agreement and sustaining integration and economic growth;
•  Addressing the risks associated with opening the financial sector (banking, securities and insurance sectors) and other services, and
• Strengthening capacity to mitigate the potential risks to poverty and income inequality.

This series of capacity building courses, developed in a period of 7 years (1999-2006), brings together the most relevant results from the research conducted by the World Bank, as well as by our partner researchers in China, on the Pre-WTO and Post-WTO accession challenges. Through publishing this website, we hope to raise the level of awareness among policy makers, entrepreneurs and other stakeholders regarding post-WTO opportunities and the challenges, deepen the understanding on the impact of China’s integration in the world; strengthen the efforts in capacity building for meeting those challenges, and provide policy advice and help explore ways to deal with potentially painful adjustments.