ABSTRACT
Over the years, China's campaign for membership in the world trading system has waxed and waned. When efforts initially began a decade ago, they were pursued with considerable enthusiasm. A working group was formed to consider China's application and a number of meetings were held. It soon became clear, however, that there were significant political and substantive reservations on the part of a number of countries about China's membership and that the process would be extended; China settled for observer status in the GATI and membership in the Multi-Fiber Arrangement (MFA), which it had already achieved.1 When the GA TI was being replaced by the WTO in 1994, China again mounted an aggressive campaign to join the WTO as a founding member. This effort, however, failed for similar reasons.2
