China joins the World Trade Organization

China formally joined the World Trade Organization on December 11, 2001, after 15 years of negotiations, the longest accession process in the organization's history. Membership required China to cut tariffs, open sectors like telecommunications and banking to foreign competition, and commit to WTO dispute-resolution rules, in exchange for guaranteed access to the markets of all other member states. Chinese exports roughly quadrupled over the following decade as multinational manufacturers relocated supply chains to take advantage of low costs and the new trade certainty. The scale and speed of China's export growth after accession later became a central point of friction in global trade politics, culminating in the US-China trade war two decades later.