Inject More Positive Energy Into Revitalizing The Multilateral Trading System
China adheres to true multilateralism and has always been an active participant, staunch supporter and important contributor to the multilateral trading system. China firmly upholds the multilateral trading system, fully participates in WTO reform, and resolutely safeguards the legitimate rights and interests of developing countries including China.
After two years of active preparations, the 13th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization will be held in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, from February 26 to 29. The 13th Ministerial Conference of the WTO is an important opportunity for the WTO to revitalize the multilateral trading system. It is also a key test of the authority and effectiveness of the WTO and has attracted great attention from the international community.
In recent years, anti-globalization trends, unilateralism, and trade protectionism have become rampant, and the WTO is facing many difficulties and challenges. The international community generally expects the WTO to adhere to the development direction of economic globalization, revitalize the multilateral trading system by promoting and solving a series of major problems, and play its due role in responding to global challenges and promoting world economic recovery. The international community looks forward to resuming the WTO dispute settlement mechanism and appellate body as soon as possible to maintain the normal operation of the multilateral trading system; it strives to break the current global supply chain system that is divided into camps, disconnected and fragmented, and maintain a transparent, non-discriminatory, open and inclusive supply chain system. International trade environment; innovatively formulate new international economic and trade rules, comply with new development trends such as green, digital and intelligent international trade; actively implement the development agenda and effectively safeguard the development interests of developing members of the WTO.
In June 2022, the 12th Ministerial Conference of the WTO achieved a number of specific results that exceeded expectations, including new coronavirus vaccine intellectual property exemptions and epidemic response, food security, fishery subsidies, WTO reform and e-commerce, etc., which must be To a certain extent, it has boosted confidence in global economic and trade cooperation and multilateralism. The 13th Ministerial Conference is expected to continue to achieve results on relatively mature issues such as e-commerce, tariff-free electronic transmission, investment facilitation, food security, and fishery subsidies.
In January 2019, plurilateral negotiations on e-commerce began. By the end of 2023, negotiations on 13 terms covering the three major areas of digital trade facilitation, open digital environment, and business and consumer trust have been basically completed; electronic transmission has been exempted from tariffs since 1998. Continuing to this day, there is a high probability that it can be extended; the "Investment Facilitation Agreement for Development" initiated by China and its developing members has completed its legal review at the end of 2023 and will soon be incorporated into the WTO legal framework. Once completed, it will become the world's first Multilateral Investment Agreement; the "Fisheries Subsidies Agreement" reached at the 12th Ministerial Conference of the WTO is not a comprehensive agreement on fishery subsidies. The second round of fishery subsidy negotiations is currently underway to further develop restrictions on overcapacity and prohibit overfishing. fishery subsidy disciplines while ensuring special and differential treatment for developing members and least developed members. It is expected that the 13th Ministerial Conference will also admit Comoros and Timor-Leste to join the WTO, making new positive progress in the expansion of developing members.
Revitalizing the multilateral trading system has a long way to go. It is still difficult to achieve substantive progress on some important issues at the 13th Ministerial Conference of the WTO. All parties need to continue to advance. For example, industrial subsidies, export controls, etc. were not officially included in the discussion agenda of the 13th WTO Ministerial Conference; issues in the agricultural field are complex, and WTO parties have different opinions on domestic support for agriculture, market access, export restrictions, and food security public relations. There are serious differences on many issues such as reserves; key differences on the WTO's own reform are still stalemate, especially due to the continued obstruction of the United States. There is still great uncertainty about whether the dispute settlement mechanism and the Appellate Body can resume good operation in the short term. In addition, climate change and environmental issues have increasingly become key areas of the WTO's work, but there is still a long way to go to promote the formulation of unified international economic and trade rules.
The multilateral trading system with the WTO as its core is an important cornerstone of the global economic governance structure and plays a key role in promoting economic globalization and trade liberalization. China's accession to the WTO as a developing country in 2001 was an important milestone in China's reform and opening up process, marking China's full participation in the process of economic globalization and its deep integration with the global industrial and supply chains. Since joining the WTO more than 20 years ago, China has made great progress in economic development and achieved mutual benefit and win-win results with its WTO partners, making important contributions to building an open world economy and improving the well-being of people in all countries.
As the world's second largest economy and the largest trader of goods, China adheres to true multilateralism and has always been an active participant, staunch supporter and important contributor to the multilateral trading system. China firmly upholds the multilateral trading system, fully participates in WTO reform, and resolutely safeguards the legitimate rights and interests of developing countries including China. China will further play its role as a major member of the WTO and, on the basis of adhering to the principle of balancing rights and obligations, strive to promote the 13th Ministerial Conference of the WTO to achieve more positive results and inject support into the WTO's revitalization of the multilateral trading system. More positive energy.