Shi Guangsheng, minister of foreign trade and economic cooperation
(MOFTEC) lashed out this weekend against "untrue" and "malicious"
reports on China's implementation of its commitments to the World
Trade Organization (WTO).
"China has been working very hard to fulfil its commitments to the
WTO since its accession to the organization last December. And
China, as it has solemnly declared many times, will be a good
member and is trying hard to carry out every word of its promises,"
said Shi on Saturday during the ministry's mid-year national
conference on exports.
Shi admitted that a lack of time has caused China to be one or two
months late in increasing quotas for some commodities, but said
that some reports in the Western media accusing China of willful
dawdling "were not true and maliciously distorted."
"China became a member at year's end and time quickly ran out
before it was ready to raise its quota limits on some commodities
in line with its promises.
"We promised this wouldn't happen again and the Western media
shouldn't exaggerate and manipulate this incident," he said.
Shi said that since becoming a WTO member, China has been working
diligently to revise laws and rules, published by either the
central or local governments, to open markets, especially in the
service sector. China has also been consulting with the WTO on its
trade policies to improve transparency, and has been actively
participating in the WTO's new round of trade liberalization
talks.
China has basically finished the clean-up of its laws and rules in
line with WTO requirements, abolishing 830 items, amending 325 and
publishing some new ones, Shi said.
These include three important national laws on wholly foreign-owned
enterprises, Sino-foreign equity joint ventures and Sino-foreign
cooperatives. Compared with their predecessors, the revised laws
create a more relaxed environment for the operation of
foreign-funded enterprises.
This year priority is being given to provincial regulations. For
example, Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong Province,
announced yesterday the repeal of an eight-year-old local
regulation on foreign-funded enterprises.
And China's average tariff level dropped to 12 per cent. Tariffs
have been reduced on 5,332 items since the beginning of this year,
Shi said.
A
number of foreign insurance and financial companies have entered
the Chinese market pursuant to the government opening the market
according to its timetable.
The China-WTO Notification Enquiry Centre started operating on
January 14 of this year and so far has received 350 inquiries and
sent more than 200 notices about China's trade policy to the
WTO.
Shi said WTO entry has had a positive impact overall on the Chinese
economy as China starts to take an active role in the new round of
WTO talks on farm trade, export subsidies, intellectual property
protection, government purchasing and competition policies.
China's use of the world trade block's dispute settlement mechanism
and its channels to conduct bilateral negotiations with other
countries trying to get into the WTO, such as Viet Nam and Russia,
have also had a positive effect.
(China Daily July 22,
2002)