Mixed expectations
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11/16/2001
Delia Huang, a newly married white-collar worker, put off buying an apartment, electrical home appliances and even skin-care products until China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO). She is one of many people looking forward to a larger variety of quality goods with more competitive prices. "Goods and service suppliers will be forced to slash their profit margins and we should see more reasonable prices," she said. The Shanghai Star has interviewed several WTO researchers who were hesitant to predict exactly how much the WTO will benefit the ordinary consumer in the near future. But they offer an assurance that people will witness changes in some areas. Department stores are expected to shelve more and cheaper electrical appliances, liquor and wine, fruit and rice shipped from overseas. People will have more access to foreign TV channels, and Internet connections will be speeded up. But they are likely to be interrupted by more door-to-door insurance salesmen. Telephone and paging fees will be lowered as foreign investment in telecommunications services increases. Books and newspapers will drop in price because there will be more paper and wood products. As the government steps up efforts to enforce intellectual property rights, people are able to see more foreign movies but fewer pirated audio and video products. Good news for car buyers - the sharp cut in tariffs will increase the number of available imports, forcing down prices of domestic automobiles. Housing prices will decrease as foreign real estate developers enter China's construction market with massive capital and advanced technology and management procedures. Domestic builders will be forced to improve their service quality and technology. Some experts predict that China's WTO entry will drive up annual domestic production 2. 94 per cent, which means a yearly increase of 240 billion yuan (US$29 million) of output and 11. 76 million of jobs. According to a report released by the Development Research Centre of the State Council, the country's WTO entry will create more jobs in the long run. Labour-intensive export industries such as clothing and textiles, which have been limited by export quotas, will absorb most of the new jobs. In the old industrial bases there are likely to be more layoffs. WTO membership may be equivalent to saying: "The wolf has finally arrived. " People and businesses must learn to dance with the wolf in order to survive and even flourish.
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