BEIJING, June 28 (Xinhua) -- China's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) has brought huge opportunities to other countries, a Ministry of Commerce official said Thursday.
"The allegation that China benefited [from the WTO accession] while others suffered is far from the truth," Vice Minister of Commerce Wang Shouwen told a press conference.
No WTO member has suffered economically due to China's accession, he said.
Both developed and developing members of the WTO have benefited from China's entry, Wang said.
He gave the example of growing U.S. exports to China, which surged from 26 billion U.S. dollars in 2001 to nearly 150 billion dollars last year as China became the third biggest market for U.S. exports, up from the 11th in 2001.
Between 2008 and 2017, exports of U.S. goods to China rose 86 percent, while those to other markets climbed only 21 percent, according to Wang.
In services, U.S. exports to China quadrupled from 2007 to 2016, compared with a 50-percent increase in U.S. exports to other markets.
Wang said that U.S. businesses in China saw their sales in China grow to 600 billion dollars in 2016 from 36 million yuan in 2001, about 4.4 million dollars calculated by the exchange rate that year.
In 2001, China paid 1.9 billion dollars in royalties to other countries for use of intellectual property. In 2017, the royalties it paid to the United States alone stood at 7.1 billion dollars, Wang told reporters.
China's accession to the WTO also brought benefits to developing countries. Wang said the country has given zero tariff treatment on 97 percent of tariff lines to the least-developed nations that have diplomatic relations with China.
"China has become the biggest export market for the least-developed countries, accounting for 20 percent of their total exports," Wang said.
The wider opening of China's huge market has made great contributions to the world economy, he said.
Between 2001 and 2017, China's imports of goods recorded an annual average growth of 13.5 percent, double the world growth rate, while its imports of services posted an average growth of 16.7 percent, 2.7 times the world average level, Wang cited data from international organizations as saying.
