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equirements placed on the states, including extensivedata collection on trade policies, tradeperformance, adherence to standards, health andfood safety, competition policy, price control, investment,sectoral policies, as well as tariff andnon-tariff measures.Th e Trade Policy review for OECS Member Statesis one of the requirements of WTO membership.The reviews are intended to assess the complianceof countries with WTO rules and their integrationin the multilateral trading system. In particular,the finalized report will provide comprehensivedetails of changes to the territories' tradingand tax regimes on international trade since thelast review in 2007.Program Officer at the OECS Secretariat, AliciaStephen, explained: "We assist the member statesby helping them to gather all this information aswell as mobilizing resources and accessing technicalassistance so they can provide the information andparticipate in the drafting of the final report whichis the review of their trade policy.""The good thing about the review is that it is notthe basis for any sort of action to be taken againstmember states if they do not comply. What thereview does for our member states is that it givesthem an assessment of where they are in termsof their ability to implement the commitmentsthat are set out when they signed on the WTOand it also gives them a global view of their TradePerformance not just in terms of figures but interms of the reforms they have undertaken sincetheir last review. The review also looks at emergingissues such as competition policy and tradefacilitation which are not yet within the ambit ofthe WTO but is there to signal to the memberstates in a certain way what their state of preparednessis to engage in those other issues," Stephenconcluded.China Studying PossibilityOf Joining TPPMinistry of Commerce spokesman Shen Danyang,at a foreign trade press briefing, has indicated thatChina would carefully analyze the pros and consand the possibility of joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership(TPP) in the future.Shen was replying to recent remarks made bythe United States Under Secretary of Commercefor International Trade, Francisco Sánchez, who,while discussing Japan's impending entry into theon-going TPP negotiations, said that his countrywould welcome China's participation in the talksif it could give an undertaking to implement, forexample, the same trade liberalization measures underconsideration by its other members.The US has always professed that the TPP agreementshould serve as a platform for regional tradeintegration in the Asia-Pacific. Earlier this year,Acting US Trade Representative Demetrios Marantishad lauded the TPP's efforts to eliminate tariffsand other non-tariff barriers, as well as rules on intellectualproperty, labor and the environment, but59