Wang Shouwen believes that the content of the reform should not only involve the industrial subsidy issues that European and American countries are concerned about, but also cover issues such as agricultural subsidies and trade remedy measures that are of concern to developing countries.
Wang Shouwen, Vice Minister of Commerce and Deputy Representative of International Trade Negotiations of China, said that the WTO system has deficiencies and needs to be reformed in keeping with the times.Issues such as agricultural subsidies and trade remedy measures that developing countries are concerned about.
The State Council Information Office released the first white paper on China and the World Trade Organization yesterday (June 28), listing the commitments that China has fulfilled since its accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) 17 years ago, and emphasizing that China has made important contributions to the world economy.Wang Shouwen made the above statement when answering questions from Lianhe Zaobao at the press conference.
Jyrki Katainen, Vice President of the European Commission, said after the China-EU high-level economic and trade dialogue this week that the existing WTO mechanism cannot effectively solve unfair trade issues such as industrial subsidy policies and forced technology transfers.Therefore, the EU and China agreed to set up a bilateral working group to discuss WTO reform, and emphasized that reform must involve regulations on national industrial subsidy policies.This implies that the European side will ask China to abandon or reduce subsidies for high-tech industries under the Made in China 2025 policy.
Wang Shouwen said that the EU's concern about industrial subsidies is only one of the subsidy issues, and the problem of excessive agricultural subsidies that developing countries have been concerned about for many years has not yet been resolved.
He said: The booming e-commerce investment facilitation issue has not been effectively dealt with by the WTO.
Also, trade remedial measures that were originally taken against unfair trade practices have become unfair trade practices today.
Wang Shouwen said that China is open to dealing with WTO mechanism issues, but he emphasized that equal participation and transparent and open discussions must be adhered to in the reform process, and the wishes of the vast majority of members, especially the concerns of developing countries, must be respected.
However, some analysts pointed out that Washington has decided to take unilateral trade retaliation because it believes that the wishes of developing countries may be easily manipulated by China's investment and economic strength.The EU still insists on maintaining the WTO-centered and rules-based international trading system.
Fulfilling WTO commitments, China is full of sincerity
Wang Shouwen criticized the United States yesterday for violating international trade rules without naming names, and pointed out that since China joined the WTO 17 years ago, it has fully fulfilled its commitments on tax cuts and opening up, and has also voluntarily reduced restrictive measures for foreign investment by 65%.He said: China's sincerity in fulfilling its commitments to the WTO is complete, and we also hope that other members can fulfill their obligations to the WTO.
On the issue of market economy status, Wang Shouwen called on WTO members such as Europe and the United States to earnestly fulfill their obligations and cancel the discriminatory surrogate country practice against China under the anti-dumping item.
However, some public opinion pointed out that there are still excessive government intervention and non-tariff barriers in the Chinese market.For example, when a country has diplomatic friction with China, the country's trade with China may be negatively affected.South Korean and Australian companies have experienced it for more than a year.
In this regard, Wang Shouwen said: If China's trading partners believe that China's actions have violated WTO regulations, we welcome them to go to Geneva to request consultations and initiate WTO litigation.
