The “Seminar of the 20th Anniversary of the WTO”, jointly hosted by China Society for World Trade Organization Studies (CWTO) and the University of International Business and Economics (UIBE), was successfully held in Beijing on June 10, coinciding with the 20th anniversary of the WTO and the 14th anniversary of China’s accession to the WTO.
The seminar invited the leaders of the government sectors, experts and scholars to review the development process of the establishment of the WTO in the past 20 years, look back the achievements made by China in the past 14 years since its accession to the WTO and look into the wonderful future of the WTO and China to promote the development of the multilateral trade system and improve the speech right of China in the WTO.
The opening ceremony of the seminar was presided over by President of the CWTO and the first Chinese ambassador in the WTO Sun Zhenyu. Sun pointed out in his speech that this year is special to the WTO, marking the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the WTO. By the end of this year, the 10th conference of trade ministers will be held in the capital of Kenya Nairobi. Now, delegations of all countries are conducting intensive negotiations for the agenda of the post-Bali negotiations in Geneva. Meanwhile, China has joined in the WTO for 14 years.
The President of UIBE Shi Jianjun, the former Vice-Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation and First Head of Delegation for trade negotiations Shen Jueren, the former Vice-Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation and Second Head of Delegation for trade negotiations Tong Zhiguang, the former Vice-Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation and the Third Head of Delegation for trade negotiations Gu Yongjiang, the Chairman of China General Chamber of Commerce and former Minister of Commerce Zhang Zhigang attended and addressed the meeting.
The President Shi Jianjun said in his speech that the problems coexist with the great achievements of WTO in the past 20 years and we should treat the past, current and future development prospects rationally. China has joined in the WTO for 14 years, which proves that under the pattern of the international community dividing the globalization, only by complying with the trends of the economic globalization, by making the correct development strategy and by finding the development road of a country in the process of participating in the international division of work and the international competition can we step onto the real road of enforcing the country and enriching the people.
The Vice-Minister Shen Jueren emphasized the three achievements made by China since its accession to the WTO 14 years ago in his speech. Firstly, the vision of China is broader with the world vision since its accession to the WTO. Secondly, the accession drives the positive participation of the Chinese enterprises, especially the private enterprises in the market competition. This is a very important factor of the economic development and the growth of national power of China. Thirdly, the accession to the WTO enables China to be more closely linked to the world and makes China clearer about itself and the world. At least, Minister Shen proposed two hopes to the future research directions of the CWTO, UBIE and the relevant organizations. Firstly, efforts should be made to strengthen the research on the WTO rules to actively participate in and use the rules. Secondly, efforts should be made to combine with the new issues in the process of international trade negotiations to study how to promote further reform and opening up of China.
Vice-Minister Tong Zhiguang briefly reviewed the 15-year course of the negotiations of China’s accession to the WTO in his speech. He emphasized that in this process, China not only overcame the external resistance, but also confronted the domestic query and coordination. Our visionary national leaders prevailed over all dissention views and unswervingly supported the accession work. Finally, China becomes a member of the WTO and the opening up of China steps onto a glorious and flat road really.
Vice-Minister Gu Yongjiang introduced his participation in the later stage of the accession by storytelling. Besides, he used this way to warn all people that China is still a developing country. He said that after the accession, he is always confused about the contents of the special safeguard clauses. But the achievements made by China since its accession to the WTO 14 years ago tell him that the accession to the WTO is of great importance to China for a certainty, especially in terms of promoting China’s reform and the process of marketization.
Vice-Minister Zhang Zhigagn first talked about five feelings on China’s accession to the WTO in his speech. Firstly, the accession to the WTO gives a full play to the advantage of the socialist system of concentrating its the forces on the great events. Secondly, the increasing national strength based on the economy is the foundation of improving the international competitiveness. He who has wealth speaks louder than others. It is more important to do China’s own work well. Thirdly, strengthening the accumulation and the research of the theory of socialist economics with Chinese characteristics is a significant component of increasing the theoretical confidence. Fourthly, the accession to the WTO is a study and a process of updating views and values and liberating concepts and ideas. Fifthly, at present, the process of the WTO is faced with frustration and the multilateral free trade agreements suggest accelerating the pace of negotiations. Finally, Vice-Minister Zhang also introduced the business development since China’s accession to the WTO 14 years ago.
Vice-President Wang Chengan presided over the keynote speech section. Deputy Director of the Development Research Center of the State Council Long Guoqiang, the Director General and President of the SCCWTO Wang Xinkui and negotiator of the Department of WTO Affairs of the Ministry of Commerce Zhao Hong delivered speeches.
Deputy Director Long Guoqiang mainly reviewed, summarized and looked into the reform and opening up of China. He illustrated the meaning of opening up from the historical and theoretical high level and proposed the principles of a new round of opening up. He pointed out that opening up is a strategic choice of China to enforce the country and enrich the people under the background of globalization. At present, we need to promote a new round of opening up with the spirit of the 2ed accessing to the WTO to promote the opening up of the new round which insists on strong self-focusing, strengths-fostering and weakness-circumventing.
President Wang Xinkui talked about three issues focusing on the global value chain. Firstly, since the establishment of the WTO 20 years ago, the economic globalization has evolved from being characterized by developing through the global industrial chain to being characterized by developing through the global value chain. Secondly, in terms of the reconstruction direction and trends of the corresponding global trade and investment rules, the development of the economic globalization from the industrial chain to the value chain is an irresistible development trend of productivity, representing the advanced productivity. The reconstruction of the global trade led by the United States reflects the trend of the economic globalization to some degree, representing the high standards. Meanwhile, the cost of contract system, bilateral system as well as plurilateral system is relatively high and the effect is absolutely lower than the multilateral system. .The world history, long divided, must unite; long united, must divide, Therefore, they will all go back to the multilateral system in the final analysis. At last, President Wang proposed his suggestions for China to deal with the current situation, that is, reform should be forced by the opening up. We need to change our statuses from the bystander and follower of the system reconstruction of the global trade and investment rules to the positive participator and even the leader. This depends on if we have a strong will for opening up, the strength of creating rules and the capability of adjusting and controlling the impact. The reform is conducive to all of these. The 20th anniversary of the establishment of the WTO and the 14th anniversary of China’s accession to the WTO give us a sign that if we talk about the bonus of the reform and opening up, the bonus of opening up is more than that of the reform in the present stage of history. There is no need to talk about the reform if there is no opening up, because the present stage of reform still needs to be reinforced by the opening up.
Zhao Hong pointed out that the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the WTO is not only a great event to the WTO and its 161 members, the international trade and economic relationship and the multilateral trade system, but also to the post-war international peace and order. She systematically introduced the contribution of the WTO in the past 20 years. The WTO effectively manages more than 97% of the global trade and the trade policies of its 161 members, like an accurate huge machine with fantastic operation, looking after the huge and complex activities of the whole world. The deliberation mechanism of the WTO trade policy is a restriction mechanism to all members, guaranteeing the transparency of the trade policies and powerfully containing the trade protectionism. The WTO dispute settlement mechanism is the jewels on the crown, enabling the international law to change from the soft to the hard greatly improving the effect of the international law and maintaining the peaceful development of the trade. Another important contribution of the WTO is that in the age of globalization, it explores how to exercise sovereignty, release sovereignty and safeguard sovereignty to a sovereignty state and it finds the balance between the exercise of sovereignty and the maintaining of sovereignty. The WTO also makes another great contribution, that is, it greatly improves the speech right of small countries and developing countries. The WTO insists on one country one vote, therefore, all people need to join and can give speeches, even an individual can deliver a speech. Of course, the WTO is not perfect, facing many problems and needing reform. The biggest challenge to the WTO is that it cannot meet the new topics of the 21th century rather than the regional trade system. Efforts still need to be made to get out of the strange circle and barrier Doha. We believe that the members of the WTO can give a full play to their wisdom and influence and can find out the way to solve this problem. At last, Zhao Hong pointed out that the biggest achievement of China’s accession to the WTO is the resolve of insisting on the reform and opening up of several generations of leaders. This is the guarantee of the future development of China. At the same time, she proposed three suggestions. Firstly, we need to continue to learn the rules. Secondly, we need to continue to maintain the rules. Thirdly, we need to develop the rules.
The last agenda of the conference is the 4th meeting of the third council of the CWTO. Vice-President and Secretary-General of the CWTO Chen Peng delivered a work report of the council.
