| 张向晨公使在WTO贸易与环境委员会上的发言 |
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| 2009-07-14 16:04 文章来源：商务部世贸司 |
| 文章类型：原创 内容分类：新闻 |
Statement on Trade and Climate Change at the CTE Regular Meeting
Dr. ZHANG Xiangchen, DPR of China
10 July 2009
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On 26 June, the WTO Secretariat and the UNEP jointly released a Trade and Climate Change Report. I would like to take this opportunity to make some comments on that report. Since it is almost impossible not to mention the Bali Action Plan these days when climate change is at question, please allow me to start by sharing with you my personal experience with the beautiful Island of Bali.
Last month, I went to Bali to attend the Cairns Group Trade Ministers Meeting as an observer. One evening, I took a walk at the top of a mountain with my colleague. The view was fantastic, with the sunset, the wind, the sea tide, and the monkeys jumping around. All of a sudden, I heard my colleague screaming “MY GLASSES”! There were traces of claws on his shoulder, glasses on nose gone. Mr. Chairman, you could imagine how frenzy and yet hopeless we were. But surprisingly, some local kids managed to exchange the glasses back with some peanuts. And my colleague hastened to give some dollars to the kids out of thankfulness.
On the way back to the hotel, we found something odd about the whole thing. The monkeys took belongings from the visitors; the kids gave peanuts to the monkeys; the monkeys gave the belongings to the kids; and the kids returned the belongings to the visitors and got some rewards. This is an interest chain! Our suspect was confirmed by our local driver. This interest chain does exist. The monkeys only realize the correlation between visitors’ belongings and peanuts after repeated hinting and training. As a result, they fill the first and most critical link in this chain with their agility.
Coming back to the Report of the WTO Secretariat and UNEP, though the scientific part has been deemed reasonably good, the legal analysis part has been unfortunately interpreted by the media as “WTO signals backing for border taxes”. A tossed stone raises a thousand ripples. Drafters of this Report might feel innocent as they seem to have only tried to explain relevant provisions in the WTO Agreement, such as the conditions of applying the general exceptions, and there is no mentioning of backing for border taxes. That being so, they should be aware that it is beyond the public and media’s ability to fully understand the legal relationship between the general provisions and the exceptions. One thing is clear to all, though, that any attempt to levy border taxes comes out for the purposes of restricting the competitiveness of others instead of fighting climate change. On this premise, it is impossible for the conditions of applying the exceptions to be satisfied, such as “no discrimination between countries where the same conditions prevail”. Even President Obama has said, “At a time when the economy worldwide is still deep in recession and we’ve seen a significant drop in global trade, we have to be very careful about sending any protectionist signals out there”. “I am very mindful of wanting to make sure that there’s a level playing field internationally”, “but there may be other ways of doing it than with a tariff”. With this in mind, the international society should express condemnations with one voice so as to deter others from following suit. It is only to be expected that the public and media have suspicions when the focus is placed on exceptions. There are two ways of interpreting exceptions. One is to say you CAN’T do something except under very special circumstances. The other is to say you CAN do something as long as certain conditions are met. The two ways can make huge differences. I am ignorant of the functions of the Secretariat, but I do know that trade and climate change is a very controversial issue. The WTO needs to be very cautious about making any opinions on it.
Mr. Chairman, current WTO rules is a small cage which is unable to hold big monkeys such as climate change. The only way out for climate change and trade measures is first to reach a multilateral agreement on climate change. This is what DG Lamy has termed as “Copenhagen first”. Then the relationship between climate change and trade measures could be further clarified under the WTO framework. These clarifications should still be based on multilateral discussions and negotiations, and not make way for unilateral measures.
Finally, let me come back to Bali. Our driver was very responsible. He swayed a bamboo pole in order to prevent the monkeys from approaching us, in spite that the “Glasses Gate” still took place. But he did his duty. He didn’t act in collusion with the kids. He even reminded us not to give too much money to the kids since this would encourage the malconduct. Monkeys are monkeys, wild and difficult to tame, while people should be clear about their identities and duties.
I thank you for your kind attention.
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