Trade Resources Policy & Opinion Symposium on “Trade Facilitation & Commemoration of the 20th Anniversary of the Establishment of WTO” Held in Nanning, Guangxi

Symposium on “Trade Facilitation & Commemoration of the 20th Anniversary of the Establishment of WTO” Held in Nanning, Guangxi

On September 18, the Symposium on “Trade Facilitation & Commemoration of the 20th Anniversary of the Establishment of WTO” was held in Nanning, Guangxi. The symposium was sponsored by the organizing committee of China-ASEAN Expo. Vice Minister of Commerce Wang Shouwen attended and presided over the symposium. Attending are: Deputy Director General of the WTO Yi Xiaozhun, first Vice Governor of People’s Government of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Tang Renjian, Deputy Customs Commissioner-General Sun Yibiao, Vice Minister of General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) Mei Kebao, trade ministers and high-level officials of the ASEAN countries and ROK.

The Deputy Director General of WTO Yi Xiaozhun said in his speech that, according to the study of WTO, the influence of the implementation of the Trade Facilitation Agreement on the trade cost reduction will surpass its influence on eliminating tariffs. The comprehensive implementation of the Trade Facilitation Agreement could not only accelerate the cross-border flow of commodities, especially the intermediate products, so as to better fit the delivery time requirements of the global value chain s, it also could help the small and medium sized enterprises to participate in trade while encouraging direct investment overseas. The Deputy Customs Commissioner-General Sun Yibiao introduced the latest measures of Chinese customs on promoting trade facilitation. The Vice Minister of General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) Mei Kebao put forward four proposals on further strengthening cooperation between China and ASEAN Quality Supervision. The First Vice Governor of People’s Government of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Tang Renjian said that Guangxi will give further play to its regional advantages and will function well as a platform to serve China-ASEAN cooperation.

Wang Shouwen said that the Chinese government has attached great importance to the work of trade facilitation, and has adopted practical measures to promote the level of trade facilitation, optimize the environment of business and foreign trade, in order to release the enterprises ‘burden, and to provide practical and genuine convenience to the enterprises. The related work has gained positive achievements. For example, the administrative examination and approval items were canceled or transferred to local government, the categories of allowed goods of automatic import were further reduced, the pilot work which is free of license and paper and which is of customs clearance and automatic import was carried out actively, the pilot “Single Window” for international trade was carried out and RMB settlement of cross-border trade was promoted actively.

ASEAN member countries including Singapore, Malaysia and Philippines shared their own successful experience on trade facilitation. China and some of the ASEAN countries like Cambodia, Philippines and Singapore also put forward the related blueprints for strengthening reciprocal and win-win cooperation in the future.

All the parties acknowledged the positive significance of the Trade Facilitation Agreement on facilitating trade, reducing trade cost, promoting trade efficiency and bolstering global economic growth. They all support the agreement to come into effect and to be implemented as soon as possible. Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand said clearly that they will accept the Trade Facilitation Agreement before the 10th WTO Ministerial Meeting at the end of the year. As the least developed members Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar also pointed out that, they hope to receive more technical assistance and support for capacity building, so that they can promote the implementation ability. All the parties agreed that, the level of regional trade facilitation cooperation should be further raised in the future, in order to step up the realization of connectivity.

Source: http://english.mofcom.gov.cn/article/newsrelease/significantnews/201510/20151001133817.shtml
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