SCIO briefing on speeding up high-quality development of commerce and serving the building of the new development paradigm
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E-mail China.org.cn, February 26, 2021
Phoenix TV:
I have a question about the WTO reform. We know that this year marks the 20th anniversary of China joining the WTO, but currently the WTO is facing a lot of difficulties and challenges. What will China do to advance WTO reform? Thank you.
Wang Shouwen:
Thank you for the question from Phoenix TV. This year marks the 20th anniversary of China joining the WTO. In the past two decades, China has fully complied with its obligations as a WTO member. We have opened our market, fulfilled our commitments, and actively participated in and contributed to some WTO negotiations, including negotiations on Trade Facilitation Agreement, on the expansion of the Information Technology Agreement, and about agricultural subsidies. China has actively reported to the WTO regarding its reforms and policy changes. Our trade policies have been reviewed by the WTO seven times and we are going to undergo the eighth. We have specially established a China Program, helping the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) integrate into the WTO mechanisms along with the efforts of the WTO Secretariat.
After the paralysis of the Appellate Body of the WTO dispute settlement mechanism, China, together with other members such as the E.U., worked to establish the Multiparty Interim Appeal-Arbitration Arrangement. In this way, China as a member of WTO has made its own contribution to strengthening the authority and effectiveness of the WTO. As you have just mentioned, the WTO has encountered some difficulties, such as the challenges posed by unilateralism and trade protectionism, the paralysis of the Appellate Body and tough WTO negotiations. It needs to change in such a situation and China supports necessary reforms. In this regard, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, was officially appointed as the new director-general of the global trade body on Feb. 15. China will actively support Okonjo-Iweala, and hopes the WTO, under her leadership, will resume its normal functions as soon as possible. For example, we hope the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference could be successfully held this year and an agreement on fisheries subsidies could be reached.
With regard to WTO reform, China has released its position paper and submitted a proposal to the WTO Secretariat. In our view, the first thing on the agenda is to restore the normal operation of the Appellate Body. If it is functioning normally, we can effectively fight against unilateralism and trade protectionism. In addition, we believe the WTO needs to properly reform some excessive agricultural subsidies, especially in regard to some developed countries, where subsidies in agriculture can be huge. The issue of public food security and reserves is also an issue about which the developing countries are concerned, which we believe should be a priority for WTO reform.
In addition, as we all know the WTO already has a history of 25 years. During this time , the world economy, international trade and cross-border investment have undergone huge changes. For example, we are trading much more in services than 25 years ago, and cross-border investment has also greatly expanded. E-commerce was still in its infancy at that time, but today it is thriving. We also hope that the WTO can keep pace with the times and consensus can be reached on domestic regulation in trade in services, investment facilitation and e-commerce.
Not long ago, the Davos Agenda was held by the World Economic Forum and President Xi Jinping delivered a special address in which he said that we should build an open world economy, uphold the multilateral trading regime; we should advance WTO reform and protect the interests and opportunities of developing countries. China is now at a new stage of development and accelerating the building of a new development paradigm. In this process, we will further open up to the outside world and are also willing to work with other WTO members to continue to support the strengthening of the WTO's authority and effectiveness, while at the same time, as the world's largest developing country, we are also willing to make more contributions and fulfil our obligations commensurate with our capabilities, based on the principle of balancing rights and duties. Thank you.
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