On November 10, 2001 (September 25, 2001 lunar calendar), China's decision to join the WTO was passed. On the afternoon of November 10, 2001, the Fourth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization in Doha, the capital of Qatar, reviewed and approved China's decision to join the WTO by consensus. China will officially become a member of the WTO 30 days after the Chinese government representatives signed the Protocol on China's Accession to the WTO and submitted the instrument of ratification for China's accession to the WTO to the WTO Secretariat. Joining the WTO is a major strategic decision made by the Party Central Committee and the State Council. It is a major event of historical significance in the process of reform and opening up. It marks that our country's opening up to the outside world has entered a new stage. This is a major event of historical significance in our country's modernization drive, and it will surely have an important and far-reaching impact on our country's economic development and social progress in the new century. Joining the WTO is a major strategic decision made by the Party Central Committee and the State Council in light of the situation and with far-sightedness. It fully reflects the foresight and firm confidence of the third generation of Chinese leadership with Comrade Jiang Zemin as the core to take the overall situation and keep pace with the times. It fully demonstrates China's positive attitude of conforming to the trend of economic globalization and actively participating in international competition and cooperation. Over the past 15 years, China's tremendous achievements in reform and opening up have provided conditions and possibilities for China to participate in the multilateral trading system; China's unremitting efforts to join the WTO have also strongly promoted the overall process of China's reform and opening up. Joining the WTO is our country's own needs for reform, opening up and economic development. The WTO (formerly known as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) is an important international organization dealing with trade issues in the world today. Its basic function is to formulate and supervise the implementation of multilateral trade rules, organize multilateral trade negotiations, and resolve trade disputes among members. It plays an irreplaceable role in the development of the world economy and trade. At present, the trade volume among WTO members accounts for 95% of global trade. Our country's accession to the WTO, the world's largest multilateral trading system, will further strengthen our country's economic and trade ties with countries and regions around the world, expand new space for our country's opening up, and help promote the improvement of our country's socialist market economic system. It will inject new vitality into the sustained, rapid and healthy development of the national economy, which is consistent with our country's goal of reform and opening up and establishing a socialist market economic system. Joining the WTO is the need for our country to deeply participate in the process of economic globalization. Economic globalization is an important feature of today's world economic development. It is a profound industrial restructuring carried out on a global scale under the impetus of the rapid development of science and technology, with the global operation of multinational companies as the carrier. Economic globalization is an objective trend of world economic development. It is a double-edged sword. If it is used well, it will benefit; if it is not used well, it will suffer. The key to the problem is to look at this trend comprehensively. This requires us to be brave and good at joining the international division of labor and cooperation under the conditions of economic globalization, seek advantages and avoid disadvantages, make full use of its favorable factors and resources to accelerate development and strengthen ourselves, and prevent and control possible unfavorable factors and risks in a timely manner. By joining the WTO, we will further accelerate the pace of improving the socialist market economic system and open up to the outside world on a larger scale and at a deeper level, which has created important institutional conditions and policy guarantees for our effective participation in economic globalization. China's accession to the WTO is also a need of the WTO itself. China is the largest developing country in the world. Without China's participation, the WTO would be incomplete and would not reflect the universality and fairness of the multilateral trading system. China's accession to the WTO will play a positive and constructive role in launching a new round of multilateral trade negotiations and establishing a new international economic order. After joining the WTO, China's economic system will be more in line with the prevailing international rules, greatly improving China's industrial and investment environment. At the same time, China's huge market potential will be gradually converted into actual purchasing power, thus providing a huge market and business opportunities for all countries and regions in the world, which will surely enable China to make new contributions to all mankind. Just like participating in the process of economic globalization, our country's accession to the WTO has advantages and disadvantages, but it is generally in line with our country's fundamental and long-term interests. Joining the WTO will bring us development opportunities in many aspects, help us continue to deepen the reform of the economic system and promote the adjustment of the national economic structure and industrial upgrading, help to expand the total employment and improve people's living standards; help to give full play to comparative advantages to expand exports and better utilize foreign capital; help to implement the "going out" strategy and participate in international competition and cooperation in a wider world; help our country participate in the formulation of international economic and trade rules and share the benefits brought by the multilateral trading system and economic globalization. Joining the WTO will also make us face some severe challenges. The government departments need to make necessary adjustments in the management of the economy from the concept and system, and the management methods and operating mechanisms of enterprises also need to be changed accordingly. As more foreign products and services enter the domestic market, some industries in our country will face more intense competition, especially those enterprises with high costs, low technical level and backward management will suffer certain shocks and pressures. We must have sufficient estimates of this. The advantages and disadvantages of our country's accession to the WTO should be scientifically and dialectically analyzed. We must give full play to subjective initiative, strive to achieve the advantages and disadvantages, and strive to achieve the overall advantages outweigh the disadvantages. To this end, we must do a good job in the preparations for joining the WTO. We must fully realize that whether we can seize the opportunity of joining the WTO and meet the challenge of joining the WTO depends in the final analysis on whether we can handle our own affairs well and continuously improve our comprehensive national strength and international competitiveness. This requires us to proceed from the overall situation, take precautions, respond actively, take corresponding strategies and measures, strive to improve the socialist market economic system, standardize the policy, law and administrative management system, further unify and open the domestic market, and create a fair and transparent competitive environment for domestic and foreign enterprises. China is a responsible big country, and the commitments made in the negotiations are part of the rights and obligations of joining the WTO. Our country will earnestly fulfill these commitments. At present, the top priority is to clean up, revise and improve foreign-related economic laws and regulations as soon as possible, maintain the consistency and authority of relevant policies; accelerate the transformation of government functions and improve the level of administration according to law; vigorously strengthen the work of rectifying and standardizing the order of the market economy; continue to expand the opening of the service market in a step-by-step manner; carry out in-depth multilateral and bilateral economic and trade cooperation; strengthen the coordination and cooperation between government departments after joining the WTO, and accelerate the training of specialized personnel.