This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Tuesday, December 27, 2011.

I'm Caleb Brown.

China's entrance into the World Trade Organization 10 years ago this month has been good for China and those with whom the Chinese trade,

but has it been good for free trade overall and are we closer to a world without protectionism?

Dan Eekinson, Associate Director of the Cato Institute's Center for Trade Policy

Studies, offers his thoughts.

This month marks China's 10-year anniversary of its access succession into the WTO.

When China joined the World Trade Organization,

it committed itself to a vast body of economic reforms at home and this economy has grown dramatically since then.

Since 2001 the economy has tripled in nominal terms to about six trillion dollars. It's the second

largest economy in the world now. China is the world's largest exporter.

It has been a huge magnet for foreign direct investment and other kinds of investment.

Investment is now flowing out of China.

Of course the Chinese have been buying government debt for a long time, but they're

starting to move into direct investment and equity investment

and things like that.

And by and large the WTO has been very good for China and China has been good for the WTO.

Hasn't China being in the WTO also been good for trade in the sense that a lot of countries

response to this growing Chinese economy has been to push for protectionism.

That's right.

China's participation in the WTO, first of all, instilled confidence in countries around the world that China would play by the rules

and as a result there was a lot of investment in China.

...