Top trade official Bo Xilai said Monday that China will play an active role in the new round of World Trade Organization (WTO) talks.

Bo, China's minister of commerce, said in a meeting with EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy that China supports the multilateral trade mechanism and will make joint efforts with the European Union and other parties to seek progress in the new round of talks.

China earnestly implemented the commitment made on its entry into the WTO. Enormous progress has been made in external trade and economic cooperation since its accession to the WTO two years ago, Bo said.

China will continue cooperating with its partners worldwide and expand trade relationships with them, the minister said.

The WTO launched its new talks, the Doha Development Agenda (DDA), in 2001, but progress stagnated, especially after the collapse of the ministerial meeting held in Cancun, Mexico, last September.

China holds an unswerving stance on maintaining the multilateral trade mechanism, pushing forward the new round of WTO talks and closely coordinating and cooperating with all parties concerned, Bo said.

"We hope that the DDA can be pushed forward and the multilateral trade mechanism further perfected," he told Lamy.

Bo briefed Lamy on China's stance on key themes of the DDA, such as the agriculture issue and industrial goods tariff.

As a developing country and new member of the WTO, China's concerns about the DDA should be considered by the other members, Bo said.

The EU trade commissioner said a multilateral trade mechanism remains vital to world trade and the European Union hopes China can play an active role in promoting the new talks.

"There is a common consensus that we have to get things moving in the coming weeks. Not the coming years, not the coming months, but the coming weeks," Lamy said after the meeting.

The two also exchanged views on bilateral issues.

Bo urged the EU to grant China full market economy status at an early date, reminding him that EU President Romano Prodi promised this last year during his visit to China.

The Chinese minister also mentioned the impact on Sino-EU trade brought by the expansion of the EU, which will add 10 new members this year.

The new members, mostly eastern European countries, will enjoy the free trade facility with the existing EU members and Chinese exports to the EU might be reduced, analysts have said.

The EU understands China's stance on the full market economy status, Lamy said, adding the EU will negotiate with China on the impact on EU-China trade caused by the EU's expansion.

The European Union was China's third largest trade partner last year, recording over US$100 billion in trade. It is China's sixth largest source of foreign direct investment and the second largest source of technology.

(Xinhua News Agency March 16, 2004)