In a comprehensive interview with
People's Daily, Shi
Guangsheng, minister of foreign trade and economic cooperation,
analyzes the significance of China's entry into the World Trade
Organization. "It marks a new stage in China's opening to the
outside world," said Shi who predicted that the move will make
great contributions to the development of the national economy.
Q: Great success has been achieved in China's foreign
economic and trade work in 2001. The event of most significance was
China's formally becoming the 143rd member of the World Trade
Organization (WTO) on December 11. Please say something about the
significance of China's entry into the WTO
A: The relationship between the WTO and China is one of
mutual need. On the one hand, without China's participation, the
WTO would be incomplete and could not be called a true world trade
organization; on the other hand, China needed to join the WTO for
its reform and opening up and economic development. Just as
President and General Secretary Jiang Zemin has pointed out:
"Joining the WTO is a strategic decision made by the Chinese
government under the new situation of economic globalization, it is
consistent with China's aims of reform, opening up and establishing
a socialist market economic mechanism." It marks a new stage in
China's opening to the outside world.
First, the WTO plays an important role in the world economy and
trade. The trade volume among its members accounts for 95 percent
of the total amount in the world. Our entry into the WTO helps
China create a good international economic and trade environment.
The WTO has three basic functions: First, formulating, implementing
and supervising multilateral trade rules. Second, organizing
multilateral trade talks. Third, solving trade disputes among WTO
members. Our accession to the WTO can help China enjoy equally with
other members the benefits of multilateral negotiations: Through
participating in the formulation of international rules, China can
safeguard its own rights and interests; through opening its own
markets, China gains the opportunity to enter the markets of other
countries and can be assisted in trade disputes by a mechanism for
solving multilateral problems.
Second, the WTO is an international organization based on rules and
principles. Some of its principles -- such as non-discrimination,
transparency, fair play and the opening of market -- are all based
on the market economy. From these principles more specific rules
have been derived through multilateral negotiation. Many of these
general principles and specific rules are useful for us to adopt or
draw on in the process of establishing and perfecting a socialist
market economic mechanism. Given this, China's entry to the WTO
will help expedite the process of China's reform and opening up
program and facilitate the establishment and improvement of China's
socialist market economic mechanism.
Third, China's entry into the WTO is also necessary for the
nation's participation in economic globalization. One important
objective of the WTO is to promote the liberalization and
facilitation of world trade and investment. Therefore, the WTO
plays a vital role, not found in any other international economic
organization in the world. Joining the WTO marks the beginning of
China's participation in economic globalization in a more dynamic
and active way. This step also will help us understand the global
trends of trade, grasp the rules and practices, pursue the good
while avoiding the harm, speed up the realization of China's
scientific and technological progress, economic restructuring and
the upgrading of industries, and take an advantageous position in
international competition in the new century.
Q: In October 2001, the Ninth APEC Leaders
Informal Conference was successfully held in Shanghai. What
stimulating role will this conference play in China's foreign
economic and trade work?
A: The Asia-Pacific region is an important foundation for
China's foreign trade and economic cooperation. Among China's 10
major trading partners, except for the European Union (EU), all
others are APEC members. In 2000, China's trade volume with APEC
members hit US$344.5 billion, amounting to some 72.6 percent of
China's total trade volume. During the same period, the investment
absorbed from APEC members stood at US$30.05 billion, some 73.8
percent of the total volume of foreign capital China used.
Therefore, a thriving APEC is of great significance to China's
economic development. Last year, China, as the host of APEC, on the
basis of giving due consideration to the interests of all parties,
achieved great success in pushing forward the liberalization and
facilitation of APEC trade and investment and expediting the
process of economic and technological cooperation. This achievement
has not only strengthened cooperation among APEC members, but has
also created a wider range for China's foreign economic and trade
work. This series of conferences helped give a great impetus to
China's entry to the WTO.
Q: At the Fifth ASEAN and China's Leaders Conference (10+1)
held in November 2001, leaders of both sides unanimously agreed on
the establishment of a China-ASEAN free trade zone. What is the aim
for the establishment of such a free trade zone?
A: The setting of this major goal of establishing a
China-ASEAN free trade zone in 10 years is the result of the
constant development of China-ASEAN relations. It reflects the
actual needs for a deepening of China-ASEAN economic ties and
embodies the common wishes of both sides to strengthen economic and
trade cooperation. The China-ASEAN free trade zone will have 1.7
billion consumers, nearly US$2,000 billion worth of GDP [Gross
Domestic Product] and a trade total of US$1,200 billion. Calculated
by population, this trade zone will be the largest one in the
world. From the perspective of economic scale, the China-ASEAN free
trade zone will be the largest free trade zone formed among the
developing countries.
The China-ASEAN free trade zone will be the first regional free
trade arrangement made by China and other countries. It is an
important move taken by China to strengthen its regional economic
cooperation with neighboring countries. It will not only further
consolidate and strengthen the existing traditional relations
between China and the ASEAN countries and promote Asian peace and
stability, but will also facilitate the respective economic
development of China and the ASEAN. This move will also help expand
the scale of bilateral trade and economic cooperation, enhance the
overall competitiveness of the economies of this region and unite
us in meeting the challenges posed by economic globalization and
regional economic integration.
Q: The year 2001 has seen a notable slowdown in world
economic growth. What impact will that exert on the world trade
market?
A: An economic recession appeared simultaneously in the
three major economies of the US, Japan and the EU from the
beginning of this year [2001]. And this situation was worsened by
the "September 11" terrorism attacks. According to an estimate made
by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), EU economic growth this
year is only 1.7 percent, Japan's economy has dropped by 0.9
percent, the economic growth of the US is 1.1 percent; global
economic growth is only 2.4 percent, lower than the 1998 level.
Economic depression has had a negative influence on the world trade
market. For instance, the volume of US imports witnessed a negative
growth in the first three quarters of the year of 2001. It is
estimated that international trade has increased only 2 percent,
much lower than last year's level of 12 percent. Under such
circumstances, the foreign economic and trade situation for China
is very grim. Thanks to China's implementation of a correct
macro-control policy, its national economy has witnessed a healthy
and steady growth. In the first 11 months of 2001, China's total
volume of imports and exports reached US$462.77 billion, a 7.4
percent increase over the same period of last year, with a total
trade surplus of US$20.37 billion. This brought China's foreign
exchange reserves to over US$200 billion. Meanwhile, the year 2001
has seen a fairly big increase in the absorption of foreign direct
investment. Between January and November of 2001, the country
approved the establishment of 22,915 foreign-invested enterprises,
with contractual foreign capital amounting to US$60.4 billion and
the actual amount of foreign capital to US$41.9 billion. These
amounts espectively increased 16.32 percent, 24.38 percent and
15.61 percent over the corresponding period of last year [2000].
Foreign capital absorbed in the whole year is expected to reach
US$45 billion, a big growth compared with last year's US$40.7
billion. The business volume of contracted projects undertaken by
China abroad and labor cooperation amounted to US$9.59 billion, a
year-on-year increase of 7.9 percent. The total volume of newly
signed contracts reached to US$13.35 billion, a year-on-year
increase of 7.3 percent. By the end of September 2001, MOFTEC
[Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation] had approved
the establishment of 6,513 Chinese-funded enterprises abroad, with
the contractual volume of investment reaching US$11.8 billion, of
which US$7.9 billion was Chinese investment.
Q: What new moves will China take in its foreign economic
and trade work in 2002, the first year after its WTO entry?
A: The Central Economic Working Conference held not long ago
decided to take entry to the WTO as an opportunity to open wider to
the outside world. After joining the WTO, China's foreign economic
and trade work will have a wider range in which to develop. In
2002, we will continue to try by every possible means to expand
exports and carry out further the strategy of market
diversification. We will push forward the facilitation of trade
transaction, strive to bring about export growth; give full play to
China's advantage of economic development and social stability,
vigorously absorb foreign capital, improve the quality of the
utilization of foreign capital. The central government will take a
more active part in economic globalization, actively yet steadily
implement the "going out" strategy. We will more actively promote
cooperation between APEC, ASEAN and China (10+1), Shanghai
Cooperation Organization (SCO) and other regional economic
cooperation to create a more favorable external environment for
China's opening to the outside world. After joining the WTO, we
should act in accordance with WTO rules. We should move faster to
sort out and revise laws and regulations and finish the work of
standardization and adjustment of various policies. The task of
training and bringing up talents who are expert in international
economy and law is a priority of the government. We should deepen
reform of the foreign economic and trading management system,
reduce administrative examination and intervention, carry out
administration according to law and make government affairs known
to the public.
I
believe we will certainly be able to properly use the favorable
conditions brought about by China's entry into the WTO and limit
any adverse effects to the minimum so that our foreign economic and
trade work will make still greater contributions to the development
of the national economy.
(Zhang Liang and Shi Xiaohui of ,
December 20, 2001 translated for china.org.cn by James Liu)