7 December 2018, Best Western Hotel, Coppet
Distinguished DDG Frederick Yonov Agah, Distinguished AmbassadorLeopold Samba, Excellencies, Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good morning.
I would like to begin by extending my warmest welcome to all participants present heretoday. And my thanks also goes to the Secretariat for their hard work and carefulorganization of this event.
The South-South Dialogue on LDCs and Development is one of the five pillars of China’sLDC and Accessions Programme (China Programme) under the framework of the WTOAid for Trade Initiative. As you may know, the other four pillars of China Program are theRoundtable on LDC’s accessions, internship programme, increasing participation of LDCsin WTO meetings, and LDCs’ trade policy review follow-up workshops. All of them focus onLDCs’ interests, and it’s my belief that today’s event would be a fruitful gathering with arelaxed mood again.
For the past decade, China has spared no efforts to reinforce its aid to other developingMembers, especially least-developed country Members, to bridge the South-Northdevelopment gap. By March 2018, it had accorded zero tariff treatment on 97% of all tarifflines to 36 LDCs that have diplomatic relations with China and completed exchange ofnotes.
Responding to the Aid for Trade initiative, China has contributed multilateral and bilateralresources to help other developing Members as well.
In the multilateral aspect, China Program, established in 2011, has helped six LDCs accede tothe WTO. Since 2017, China has strengthened cooperation with the WTO and otherinternational organizations under the South-South Cooperation Assistance Fund, and carriedout cooperative projects in Aid for Trade to help other developing Members benefit from globalvalue chains.
Last month, China hosted its first International Import Expo in Shanghai, and we offeredtwo free standard booths and other necessary assistance for LDCs Members each. Let meassure you once again, that, China is ready to shoulder more responsibilities and try its bestto provide more public goods. We will open our arms to the people of other countries andwelcome them aboard the express train of China’s development, particularly for LDCs.
Today’s Dialogue is a public goods as well, and I think we had a good basis. In the past twoyears, two consecutive Dialogues of such kind have been successfully convened. It wasproved that the event was of great help for us to deepen mutual cooperation andcollaboration, and enable us to join hands together in solidarity and overcome thechallenges in front of us.
The multilateral trading system is facing severe challenges: i.e. the impasse of Doha Roundnegotiations for over 17 years, the likely paralysis of the dispute settlement system, and theinability in responding the technological development and economic globalization. For allthese reasons, the WTO needs a necessary reform to keep up with the times, but the reformshould be in the right direction and take the right approach.
Bearing this in mind, I think it would be a good opportunity, and a necessary step, to discussthe WTO reform—the flavor of the season, among developing and least developed countries,so that we could better understand what it really means and evaluate the implications, and ofcourse, most importantly, make our voice heard in the process. Like I said before, forsmall economies, WTO is one of the few places that you can make yourself heard, instead ofwaiting for others to make rules.
Also, we invited proponents to present their views on this topic. I expect to have interactive andpositive discussions today.
Before listening to your insightful views, I would like to share with you some of China’sobservations.
As stated before, we support necessary reform of the WTO, in order to enhance itsauthority and efficacy, to build an open, inclusive and non-discriminatory world economy. Ithink some of you may have read China’s Position Paper on WTO Reform releasedrecently.
I would highlight today that one of the most important principles in that Paper is, the WTOreform shall safeguard the development interests of developing and least developedMembers, and address the difficulties they encounter in the integration into economicglobalization, by providing them with flexibility and policy space, and special and differentialtreatment in the context of the WTO, which are needed for their economic development, andcontribute to 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and narrow the North-South gap.
I think this is fundamentally important to us, as we developing and least developedcountries are capacity-constrained in various aspects, which is the most practical andspecific difficulty to us as well. It is, therefore, reasonable that the very first thing the entiremembership should consider is, when discussing or negotiating a topic, the capacityconstraint of developing and least developed countries.
Meanwhile, China is of the view that the WTO reform shall be undertaken throughextensive consultations, based upon mutual respect and dialogues on equal footing. Theprocess shall be inclusive and open to all Members. We need to conduct extensive consultations to achieve gradual progress instead of imposing one’s position on others.Should there be a multilateral outcome, we shall follow the practice of decision-making byconsensus.
Needless to say, the reform agenda shall place the priority on addressing the existentialcrisis faced by the WTO, that is, taking up and resolving the issue of Appellate Body member appointment blockage as soon as possible, reining in actions of unilateralism andprotectionism with the strings of the WTO rules, and ensuring the smooth functioning of allaspects of the WTO. China, together with the EU and other members have jointly proposed two documents on Appellate Body Appointments for discussions at the forthcoming General Council meeting. We encourage your delegation to join us to voice togetherstrongly.
In this whole process, China is more than willing to cooperate with our developing and leastdeveloped friends, so that our voice wouldn’t be easily ignored. Today’s Dialogue is a positivestep towards that direction. I would encourage more developing and least developedMembers to speak out, clearly and loudly, so that your country’s concerns could be dulyreflected. In this sense, I expect a long but lively discussion next week in our TNC/HODs meeting, and General Council meeting as well.
But before that, let’s have a lively discussion today. I look forward to your valuablecontributions, and would wish today’s Dialogue a complete success.
Thank you.
