China’s efforts to implement its World Trade Organization (WTO) obligations have significantly improved market access for U.S. products and improved the transparency of its laws and regulations.

• China has implemented its tariff reduction obligations for industrial and agricultural goods, resulting in increased market access for U.S. producers.
• Tariff reductions on beef, fresh fruit and fresh fish, among other agricul-tural products, have resulted in significant increases in U.S. exports to China since 2001. U.S. cotton and wheat exports have increased dramatically. In the first half of 2004, exports of cotton to China were 300 percent greater than they were in the first half of 2002; wheat exports grew by 2,000 percent in the same period.
• Tariff reductions on a number of manufacturing sectors, including agricultural and construction equipment, paper products, steel, chemi-cals, and medical and scientific equipment, have helped produce rapid growth in U.S. exports to China. Exports of medical and optical equip-ment, for example, grew by 32 percent in 2003.
• In 2003, China effectively ended the quota system for certain U.S. automobile companies, one year ahead of the 2004 deadline in the WTO agreement. Quotas on motorcycles and crane lorries and chassis also were eliminated a year ahead of schedule in 2003. These measures give U.S. producers greatly improved access to the growing Chinese markets for construction equipment and transportation equipment.
• China has made significant reforms to its antidumping, countervailing duty and safeguard laws to comply with the WTO agreements. These reforms provide additional protections of transparency and judicial review to U.S. companies when they are investigated under China’s trade remedy laws.
• China has eliminated export restrictions and fees on most goods, eliminating price distortions and ensuring that U.S. businesses and consumers have access to goods from China.
• China has reformed its laws and regulations to conform to the require-ments of the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property, but enforcement problems continue to plague China’s intellec-tual property rights protection. China acknowledges that it has a prob-lem and has created a “leading group” within the government to improve intellectual property rights protection enforcement.
• U.S. officials must continue to press China to conform to WTO rules and to implement its WTO accession obligations in a timely manner.
• China maintains restrictions on the export of certain critical raw materials, such as florspar. These continued export restrictions on raw materials deny U.S. producers access to important inputs and give the Chinese manufacturers that have access to the raw materials an unfair advantage.
• Quotas on imports of fertilizer, a significant U.S. export, were not administered in a timely or transparent manner in 2002 or 2003, resulting in barriers for U.S. companies seeking to export to China.
• Questionable use of biotechnology and sanitary and phytosanitary rules are hindering U.S. farmers’ efforts to export to China. Similarly, lack of transparency and other problems with the allocation of Tariff Rate Quotas have limited the ability of U.S. producers to access the growing Chinese market for agricultural products.
• Lack of effective enforcement of intellectual property rights means U.S. inventors and innovators continue to be plagued by piracy and counterfeiting of their products. Violations of copyrights on film, music, software and pharmaceutical products and counterfeiting of consumer goods and industrial parts continue to be serious problems in China.
• China still maintains restrictions on the trading and distribution rights of foreign businesses. U.S. businesses seeking to import, export and engage in the distribution of products in China continue to face restric-tions due to the violation of China’s WTO commitments.