In the field of foreign trade alone, the country has finished the revised drafts of 148 laws and put them under the evaluation of the National People's Congress, said Professor Zhao Weitian, a legal consultant on the WTO for the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation.

Moreover, China will abolish another 571 laws after China enters WTO because they are contrary to related WTO rules, said Zhao.

The WTO, which has a 650-page trade code, requests that its members must set their internal rules in accordance with the code, he added.

The revision in Chinese law will shape the country's legal system in the direction of the WTO principles - free market entry, equal treatment to both foreign and local firms and more market transparency, said Wu Zhipan, director of the law school of Peking University.

Many of the current laws were designed under a planned economy and, therefore, are no longer appropriate for a market-oriented economy that China is striving to be, Wu said.

However, it will take a much longer time for China to play under a complete set of rules of a market-oriented economy than to set up such rules, both experts said.

A nation's legal system lives in its social and economic conditions and it will take China about 10 to 15 years to nurture a mature and stable market-oriented economy, they said.

Although China has promised that all levels of government must adhere to the WTO rules, the question of how to reduce administrative interference in the legal system will still be a matter for the central government, said the experts.

It is also hard for the Chinese, who traditionally cherish harmony and stability, to accept the WTO rules, which were established based on Western values, which emphasize individualism and competition, Wu said.

HK lawyers

Both mainland and Hong Kong legal professionals at the seminar agreed that China's WTO entry will bring great opportunities for the SAR's lawyers because China will grant wider market access to overseas law firms and Hong Kong companies will have more legal services on the mainland.

Hong Kong's lawyers are the best choices for the mainland to help it complete its legal system because they are highly-experienced, write Chinese, and many of them speak Mandarin, said Wu.

(China Daily May 31, 2001)