WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/MIN(05)/ST/59 
14 December 2005 
 (05-6041) 
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE 
Sixth Session Hong Kong, 13 - 18 December 2005 Original:   English 
 
  
CHINA 
 
Statement by HE Mr Bo Xilai
 
Minister of Commerce  
   It is my pleasure to attend this Minister ial Conference.  I thank the Hong Kong SAR 
Government and the WTO Secretariat for their great efforts in organizing and preparing this event. 
 
 During the Uruguay Round, GATT Members had worked very hard to bring it to a conclusion.  However, the outcome of that Round tu rned out to be somewhat disappointing, in the 
sense that the imbalance in the world economy had no t been addressed effectively, and the problem of 
polarization was getting increasingly serious.  As  a result, developing countries have been 
complaining a lot, and the developed ones have been  feeling the heat.  This is perhaps the primary 
reason why the current round of multilateral trad e negotiations is name d "Doha Development 
Agenda" or Doha Round.  This represents a major step  forward in the history of the WTO.  This is 
also a wise and visionary choice by the WTO Members.  If the objectives of development can be realized through this Round, then countries, no matter rich or poor, would benefit from an environment favourable to sustainable development a nd peoples of different countries would be able 
to co-exist in a world of greater harmony.  On th e other hand, if the theme of development were an 
empty slogan, the negotiations would become meaningless and lack momentum.  If that is the case, the WTO may risk further erosion of its credibility.   China would support a balanced outcome of the Doha Round.  To us, it does not mean a self-balance and trade-off between the offensive and defe nsive interests of a particular developed country 
itself.  Rather, it must be conduc ive to the achievement of overall balance for developing countries as 
a whole.  As a matter of fact, there already exists a serious imbalance in terms of the general levels of 
development between the rich nations and the poor ones, with negative impact on the overall 
economic development of the whole world.  To ad dress this imbalance, developed countries must do 
more in this Round and must be willing to consid er sufficient policy space for developing countries. 
 
 Agriculture is the centrepiece of the Doha  Round negotiations.  Alt hough both developed and 
developing countries are faced with pressures, the nature of their difficulties is very different.  Of the 2.6 billion farming population in the world, 2.5 b illion reside in the developing countries, and the 
majority of them are living below poverty lines.  Ev en if some developing countries were willing to 
embark on the road of trade liberalization, they w ould have to take into account the basic livelihood of 
millions or even billions of their farmers.  To e xpose those poor farmers to further external shocks 
could trigger disastrous consequences.  Should such scenario occur, the lifestyle of the rich countries 
would be endangered, too.  It is therefore sensibl e to offer duty-free, quota-free treatment to products 
from the least developed countries immediately.  De veloping countries should also be entitled to the 
concepts of "Special Products" and "Special Sa feguard Mechanism".  In the process of promoting 
world trade liberalization, it is crucial to bear in mi nd the interests of the majority and to enable them 
to adapt to the pace of progress.  Hence the nec essity of providing meaningful special and differential 
treatment to all developing countries.  It is advisable to reach consensus during the Hong Kong WT/MIN(05)/ST/59 
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 conference on issues like cotton, etc, so that ther e could be some "Early Harvest" for developing 
countries.  Such visible and tangible benefits c ould boost the confidence of most Members in the 
ongoing Doha Round negotiations.   China is firmly opposed to any attempt of  sub-categorizing developing Members.  Big 
developing nations such as Brazil, India, Indonesi a, Egypt, South Africa, Mexico, Argentina and 
China are still under tremendous pressures along the c ourse of their development, and they are the 
ones who are shouldering the burden of feeding the majority of the world's population.   Ten years have passed since the conclusion of the Uruguay Round.  Now it is time for 
development countries to make up their minds.  The farming population in  developed countries 
accounts for less that 4 per cent of the world's total, and given their strong financial muscles, 
developed countries are fully capable of taking good car e of their own farmers after the elimination of 
subsidies and further tariff reduc tions.  We firmly support the elim ination of all kinds of export 
subsidies by developed Members, who should comm it themselves to completing this job by 2010 in 
good faith.  We stand for significant reduction of trade-distorting domestic supports by developed 
countries.   On NAMA negotiations, China supports the idea of  a Swiss formula with dual coefficients, as 
long as the distance between the two coefficients is wide enough, and at the same time, other 
flexibilities as provided for developing countries should remain intact. 
 
 To facilitate greater participation of developing  Members in global trade in services, special 
attention should be paid to the sectors of particular  concern or export interest  to developing countries 
during the service negotiations.  
 As the biggest victim of abused anti-dumpi ng measures, China supports further clarification 
and improvement of the existing disciplines for rul es covering anti-dumping a nd other relevant areas, 
in order to prevent effectively abuses of anti-dum ping measures and strengthen transparency.  We are 
opposed to the new tendencies of trade protectionism in some developed countries.   I want to say a few more words for the 1.3 billion people in China.  It had taken China 
15 years to complete the negotiations of its accession to the WTO, which entailed extensive 
commitments and significant contributions to the mu ltilateral trading system.  As a result, our average 
tariff level for industrial products has dropped to 9 pe r cent this year from the pre-accession level of 
42.9 per cent, whereas our average tariff level for agricultural products now stands at only 15.3 per 
cent as compared to the pre-accession level of 54 per cent.  However, the world average tariff for farm 
products now is as high as 62 per cent.  Throughout the history of the WTO, no other Members have 
made such huge cuts during such a short period of time, not even any developed Member!  In the area 
of services, our commitments for liberalization ha ve covered 100 sectors and s ubsectors, pretty close 
to the rate of coverage for developed Members.   However, China is still a genuine developing 
country, with a farming population of  740 million.  Per capita GDP in China was only US$1,200 last 
year.  Over the past two decades,  the Chinese Government has been  doing its utmost in reducing 
poverty, to the effect that over 200 million people ha ve now been lifted out of poverty.  Yet by the 
World Bank criteria, nearly 200 million people in China are still living on less than US$1 a day.  Besides, there are some 60 million disabled people in  need of care in China.  For reasons cited above, 
the particular concerns of China as a recently acceded Member of the WTO must be effectively 
addressed during the DDA negotiations.  Special and differential treatment should be earnestly 
accorded to recently acceded Member s like China in accordance with the relevant provisions of the 
Doha Work Programme, known as the July 2004 Framework.   Despite those difficulties, as a responsible nati on, China is prepared to make appropriate 
contributions in the current round of negotiations.  Let me emphasize that b ecause our applied rates  WT/MIN(05)/ST/59 
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 and bound tariffs are at the same level, any reducti on commitment we make would be substantive and 
a real cut.   Although it is faced with many difficulties, China is contributing a lot to the world economy.  In 2001, China imported goods worth US$240 billion.  And this year, China is expected to spend 
US$600 billion on imports of foreign goods.  China is  emerging as a huge new market for the rest of 
the world.  The Chinese Government has already deci ded to write off the debts owed to it as of the 
end of last year by those heavily indebted poor countries.  As the Minister of Commerce of China, I am deeply proud of my country, particularly its c ourage to open up and its spirit of self-sacrifice. 
 
 In the name of the Chinese Government, I would also like to use this opportunity to extend 
our warm welcome to Saudi Arabia and Tonga to th e World Trade Organization.  I urge the Members 
concerned to conclude their nego tiations with nations like Russia, Viet Nam, Belarus, Kazakhstan, 
and so on as quickly as possible.  They are play ing important and positive roles in the world economy 
and trade.  Their accession to the WTO would further enhance the representativeness of the 
multilateral trading system. 
  The Chinese President HU Jintao recently called for all the parties concerned to demonstrate greater political will, show necessary flexibilities, work harder to move the negotiations under DDA 
forward and try to make substantive progress dur ing the Hong Kong WTO Ministerial Conference.  
This is the position and expectations of China.  I have been to Hong Kong several times, but have 
never seen so many ministers gather together from so many places.  Hong Kong is a clean, dynamic 
city with green mountains and blue waters.  Life  here is widely recognized as comfortable and 
convenience in the absence of traffi c jams and with first-class food.  It has been rated the World's 
Freest Economy for 11 consecutive years.  I believe we  should all work hard to try to repay the warm 
hospitalities of Hong Kong by making real progress and wise decisions for the ongoing DDA 
negotiations in the interest of peoples all over the world. 
 
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