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Minister of Commerce Lu Fuyuan on Saturday pledged China's willingness to hold regular talks with the European Union in the new round of World Trade Organization talks in order to make early progress and improve the world trade environment.
Lu told Pascal Lamy, the EU Trade Commissioner, that China was ready to actively participate in and promote all the topics in the new round of WTO talks, which was conducive to China's realization of its economic goals for 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 yet, China did not regard the talks as deadlocked, Lu said, adding that all members were seeking solutions that would satisfy all.
The WHO spirit stressed mutually beneficial results and common development, and the interests of the developing members should be fully respected, he said, hoping no unfair or discriminative clauses would be sought in the new round of talks.
Lu said China's government departments had fully abided by the country's accession provisions, winning praise from other members. Since fair trade and non-discrimination were the fundamental principles of the world trade body, discriminative measures as taken by some members would undermine Chinese business confidence in the WTO and 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. China had played an increasingly important role since entering the organization. In Asia, China had set a model for developing economies by opening to the world. The EU was willing to enhance communication with China to promote the new round of talks.
(Xinhua News Agency June 15, 2003)
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