China has pledged its willingness to hold regular talks with the
European Union (EU) in the new round of World Trade Organization
negotiations aimed at making early progress and improving the world
trade environment.
Minister of Commerce Lu Fuyuan told EU Trade Commissioner Pascal
Lamy on Saturday, that China was ready to actively participate in,
and promote a whole range of topics in the next round of WTO talks.
This was, said Lu, conducive to China's realization of its economic
goals over the next 20 years.
He
said that reaching agreements at an early date was in the interests
of all parties and contributed to the long-term, steady growth of
the world economy and trade.
Although no agreements had been reached since the start of the
negotiations, China did not in anyway regard the talks as
deadlocked, Lu said, adding that all members were seeking solutions
that would satisfy all.
The spirit of the WTO stressed mutually beneficial results and
common development, and the interests of those members from
developing countries and regions should be fully respected, he
said. Lu expressed his hope that no unfair or discriminative
clauses would be sought in the next round of talks.
He
highlighted the fact that China's government departments had fully
abided by the country's accession provisions, for which they had
won the praise of other WTO members. Since fair trade and
non-discrimination were the fundamental principles of the body,
discriminative measures, such as those taken by some members, would
undermine Chinese business confidence in the WTO and ergo world
trade development.
He
also promised that China would strengthen coordination and
negotiations with the EU to promote bilateral trade and economic
ties.
Lamy praised China's performance in fulfilling its commitments to
the WTO.
He
said that China had played an increasingly important role since
entering the organization and had set a model for developing
economies in Asia by opening to the world.
The EU was willing to enhance communication with China to promote
the new round of talks, Lamy added.
(China Daily June 16, 2003)