Approving China‘s entry into the WTO was a mistake, declared Joseph Barloon, nominee for Deputy U.S. Trade Representative to the WTO.

«Admitting China to the WTO was a mistake. The fundamental incompatibility between authoritarian non-market systems and free-market democracies presents ongoing challenges,» Barloon told a Senate hearing in his country.

China’s entry into the WTO

After 15 years of negotiations, China officially joined the WTO on December 11, 2001.

Product exports from China to the world increased from $326 billion in 2002 to $3.575 trillion in 2024.

As a result, China’s share of total world goods exports increased from 5.1% in 2002 to 15% in 2024.

Before the senators, Barloon pledged to work closely with U.S. allies to address issues strategically, including what he sees as the error of China’s WTO accession.

Below is the trend of product exports from China to the world, in billions of dollars:

• 2022: 326.
• 2012: 2,049.
• 2022: 3,594.
• 2023: 3,389.
• 2024: 3,575.

Technology Competition

In another of his responses, Barloon said the WTO has not adequately addressed China’s harmful acts, policies and practices in technology. 

“I am committed to working closely with our allies to address these issues strategically and look forward to working with Congress on WTO reform,” he said.

In December 2024, just before stepping down from the position Barloon now seeks to fill, Maria Pagan made statements by way of balance. During the last meeting of the WTO General Council, she revealed that members failed to agree on major reforms. The objective was to reactivate the dispute settlement system, considered inefficient by several countries. However, no progress was made.

This failure occurred shortly before Donald Trump assumed the U.S. presidency in January.

In addition, Pagan informed the press that the meetings held then in Geneva, also ended without results. In this case, the disagreements centered on the regulation of overfishing and excess fishing capacity.

For his part, Barloon criticized the WTO. He noted that the body suffers from a chronic lack of transparency. In his view, many countries systematically ignore their obligation to notify legal changes affecting international trade.