Wolf at the Door: What Happened to the Predictions of Doom?

As China prepared to accede to the World Trade Organization, analysts worried about a globalization trap, including crippling competition for its industries and farmers, a loss of sovereignty and disruption to the nation’s anticipated trajectory of growth, explains Gregory Chin, chair of the China Research Group at the Center for International Governance Innovation. Specialists fretted about every detail of possible competition, and some pessimists suggested that “WTO entry was the veritable ‘wolf at the door.’” Because of government intervention, the early apprehensions proved unwarranted: China benefited from increased global harvests and low prices for grain imports; the government prepared for competition with specialization programs based on comparative advantages of its agro-zones, as well as stimulus investments aiming to create new jobs to compensate for layoffs in the state-owned enterprises. Chin concludes that moves by a pro-active government, applying specific policy tools, helped circumvent the worst effects of competition and globalization. – YaleGlobal