"This is great news and I congratulate all those whose hard work has made this possible. There is still further important work to be done. Bilateral negotiations remain to be concluded between China and some of the WTO member governments. The US Congress is due to vote in the next few weeks on China’s trading status. Important technical issues remain to be resolved in the multilateral process in Geneva. Nothing, however, should diminish the importance of this news from Beijing. This is another major step towards extending the benefits and responsibilities of the WTO system to a quarter of the world’s population."