Intervention at the 27th Trade Negotiation Committee (TNC) on 26 July, 2007
By Mme.CHAI Xiaolin, DDG for WTO Affairs, Mofcom, China
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
l Mr. Chairman, we appreciate very much your assessment of the current situation and the program you have suggested after the resumption of our work in September.
l We would like to thank the Chair of Ag and the Chair of NAMA for their tremendous efforts in preparing the drafts which help to intensify the multilateral process of the negotiations. We also thank other Chairs of the negotiation bodies for their report on the state of play of their work and effort.
l China fully support the statement made by African Group, Brazil on behalf of G110 as it covers all group of interest of developing countries.
Mr. Chairman,
l On the modality paper on Agriculture, China notes that the paper has embodied some progress. As the Chair has pointed out, there are relatively fewer square brackets in the text and the proposed landing zone seems to be narrowing. However, some parts of the modality papers require further improvement, particularly in areas where imbalances still exist in terms of the obligations of developing members vis-à-vis those of the developed ones. The level of ambition for the reduction of trade-distorting domestic support, the improvement of market access to the developed countries and the S&D treatment for the developing countries, particularly the treatment of Special Products, and the treatment for RAMs, the Cotton 4, the SVEs and LDCs remain our major concerns. We would like to encourage the Chair to make earnest efforts to adequately address these issues in his next revised text.
l On the NAMA paper, we believe that there are still many gaps to be bridged. For example, the spread between two coefficients should be wider, which means an even lower coefficient for the developed members and a higher coefficient for the developing members as proposed in the chair’s text. We believe that only in this way can we fulfill the mandate of “less full reciprocity”. Furthermore, the concerns of NAMA11, para 6 members, LDCs, SVEs and RAMs should be properly addressed.
l China is fully committed to the multilateral process and is looking forward to the intensification of the process in September. We hope that the two Chairs will come up with a much more balanced version of the text based on comments from Members, especially from the developing members through a broad based consultation. We also hope that Chairs of Services, of Rules, of Trade Facilitation and of other issues will also intensify their work so as to make timely progress before the conclusion of the Round.
l Mr. Chairman, before we all leave for our summer vacation, the two Chairs have put in our suitcases a set of homework to make our vacation meaningful but relatively busy and certainly not restful. China is all geared up to face the challenge and relevant agencies in the capital will carry on in-depth analysis of the paper and come back with additional comments in September.
l Finally, we would like to join the others to thank Ambassador Galfore for his contribution to the multilateral trading system and to various areas of work within WTO and thank him particularly for his advice today on better care for household furniture especially the Chairs. So please be rest assured that China will take care of the Chairs with utmost support. We wish Ambassador Galfore the best of luck for his future career.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
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