WTO News
- Appraisal of China's WTO performance cover global media
Date: 13-Dec-2006 Sources: (Xinhua Online)
Appraisal of China's performance as a WTO member covered pages of global media on Monday, five years after its joining the organization.
'China had undertaken a lot of structural reforms over the past five years according to its commitments to the WTO,' Vice President of ADB Lawrence Greenwood said.
'These reforms have helped the Chinese government seek public opinion and support for further reforms,' he noted.
Pascal Lamy, WTO director-general, and Charlene Barshefsky, former U.S. trade representative, both top negotiators for China's entry, have praised China's fulfillment of its WTO pledges.
Lamy said in Geneva he gave China's performance 'an A-plus' while Barshefsky said China had made remarkable progress in opening its economy since its WTO membership.
But the scorecard given by U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab was not that rosy. 'The record on opening its markets is profoundly mixed,' she wrote in the Financial Times.
She added China should also work harder to eliminate government policies that 'unfairly discriminate in favor of Chinese companies' and 'block U.S. exports and hinder financial and other service companies' seeking to do business in its market.
Since joining the trade watchdog, China has cut its average tariff for industrial goods from 14.8 percent before accession to 9.1 percent in 2005, and the tariff for farm goods has fallen from 23.2 percent to 15.4 percent, according to China's WTO Ambassador Sun Zhenyu.
More than 700 trade-related laws and regulations have been abolished to fulfill its pledges, Sun added.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson wrote: 'The United States believes China can do more to reduce its trade surplus. We are encouraging China to introduce greater flexibility for its currency.'
But Keith Rockwell, spokesman for the WTO, told Reuters that China had done well, considering its size, developing economy and the tough reforms demanded.
'An enormous amount was asked of China, and I think everyone would agree that they made a considerable effort and have done well,' Rockwell said.
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