Statementby H.E. Ambassador YU Jianhua
atthe Informal Meeting of Heads of Delegation
Geneva,25 July 2016
Thank you Mr.Chairman for your updates and the reports presented by the Chairs of respectivenegotiating groups.
At theoutset, let me join you and other colleagues in expressing our condolence andsympathy to the families who suffered from the recent terrorist crimes. We alsowelcome Liberia to this big family.
I would liketo take this opportunity to share with members two of China’s observations:
First, we remain committed to promoting thenegotiations of all remaining DDA issues.
In recentmonths, we have seen new ideas and proposals put on the table and discussed. However, through the discussions, no sign of consensushas emerged so far and the prospect for gathering future consensus on these newapproaches seems unfavorable. We do notneed to color print the situation. China believes that the Doha framework andmandate remain the largest denominator among Members to deliver more in therun-up to MC11.
For agriculture negotiations, we note that somemembers have strong interests in discussing domestic support. The success of MC10 is to a large extentattributed to its contribution toward a level playing field by eliminating agriculturalexport subsidies, and we believe that MC11 could go further in that directionby eliminating the AMS of domestic support, in particular those provided by thedeveloped members. There are only 32members who are entitled to AMS. It ismost trade-distorting and unfair to the rest of membership. It is clearly impossible to reach consensus inthis house, if we leave the issues of AMS unresolved and take up the issue of de minimis, in particular the de minimis of developing members, letalone the de minimis of Article 12members.
The outcomeon agriculture cannot rest on domestic support only. We should also advance agriculture marketaccess, particularly issues to the interest of developing members such astariff simplification, tariff peaks and tariff escalation of developedmembers. We believe that those issuesare proper candidates for the deliverables at MC11, noting the importance ofthose issues to global agricultural trade. Of course, the issues of public stocking for food security purposes andSSM are stand alone issues that must be delivered by MC11.
Regarding theNAMA negotiations, any MC11 package without NAMA outcomes cannot be claimed assuccess, taking into consideration of the importance of non-agricultural tradein global trade. One narrative can notjustify by itself that market access is unnecessary to be dealt with multilaterallyas they could be addressed at RTAs. Weare deeply concerned with that, as it would push WTO further away from thecalls of industries and worsen the segmentation of rules and marginalization ofdeveloping members, as not all developing members are part of the Mega-RTAs.
The strongperformance of services in globaltrade made it imperative to revitalize and advance the multilateral servicesnegotiations expeditiously including discussions on domestic regulation.
We are alsowilling to discuss the potential rules for fishery subsidies and anti-dumpingin the negotiating group on rules.
Of course, itis hard to envisage a scenario where developmentand LDC issues in particular will be excluded from the final package.
Second, we are willing to work with others andadvance new issues, on the basis of adequate consultations, to achievelow-hanging and development-friendly outcomes at MC11.
Indeed,E-commerce has been discussed here almost since two decades ago. However, interms of rule-making globally, it is a NEW issue. Several proposals have been submitted,each with different focus and priority though. My Capital is currently reviewing them in acareful and positive manner. In ourview, E-commerce is a cross-cutting issue, thus our discussion should not belimited only to the area of trade in services. The development dimension needs to be thefocus of the discussion such as capacity building, technical assistance, andtrade facilitation, etc. In this regard, we take note with interest ofthe proposal recently tabled by Pakistan.
In general,China is willing to actively engage in discussion on e-commerce, and we willmake our contribution in due course.
Mr. Chairman,
Thesummer break is just around corner. Weencourage Members to make full use of summer time to prepare our own proposalswhile analyzing those of others. Chinais willing to work closely with all members in the spirit of solidarity and proposal-drivenmanner and take concrete actions to advance all the negotiations.
I hope this statement will be reflected in the minute of General Council.
I thank you.
