China's WTO Access at an Opportune Time: Pascal Lamy

Home>>Opinion

Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, December 11, 2001

China's WTO Access at an Opportune Time: Pascal Lamy

On the eve of the day December 11 when China comes to formally acquire its full membership of the WTO, Pascal Lamy as EU trade commissioner turned up on his 4th China visit incidentally at a snowing time in Beijing. Before he left Beijing, Lamy in the rest room of the Capital Airport exclusively granted an interview to our correspondent.

From the very outset, Lamy said his visit had all along been in a warm, easy and happy atmosphere though having the coldest weather he ever met. This was because his visit had been concentrated for most of the talks on developing EU-China bilateral cooperation instead of incessant table wrangling with his Chinese counterparts.

China's WTO access had been made the subject of our talk with Lamy without doubt. Lamy specially used the very term of "Long March" in describing the past 15-year Odyssey of talks on China's WTO entry. He said: "China has been committed to further reform on this 'Long March'. China will be benefited under a multi-lateral trade system and will take a central place during a new round of future multi-lateral talks. In this sense, though a fairly long period of time has been used on the talks China's WTO access is still at an opportune time."

In the past few months, few happy tidings have been heard from developments of the world economy. This is especially so after the "September 11" terrorist attacks in the US: To no small harm has the world economy been brought and wide negative impacts exerted on the world trade. Against this, in the opinion of Lamy, China's WTO entry and a new round of world trade talks augur promising prospects heartening the world economic circle and this has greatly enhanced people's confidence in the development of a world market. He wittingly said that the Seattle Conference had produced no effect on the launch of a "new round of millennium talks" for a two-year delay but by now the whole world has been waiting for the entry of China to start a new round of trade talks.

Lamy said in an earnest tone that WTO entry has practically brought about many great changes in China. To adapt itself to a range of such changes, China to go through a hard process of transformation is entirely possible and this may take three to five years. "But in my view, the Chinese leaders must have had meticulous arrangements made and be assured that such a transformation will be smoothly accomplished. An important task after China's WTO entry is to reform its banking system and see to it that personnel be trained by various training courses on WTO rules and adjustments made of laws and regulations." Lamy still kept fresh in his mind memories about his first meeting with the late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping in 1986. Later, during his visits as EU trade commissioner, he also had the honor to have met with President Jiang Zemin, Premier Zhu Rongji and other Chinese leaders. In his opinion, China's WTO accession as a decision made on a national scale represents on the part of Chinese leaders the prowess of their wisdom and unprecedented power in decision making.

Looking into the multi-lateral trade system of the future, Lamy thinks that China and EU can become good cooperative partners in the WTO for a similar stance they have had. Although EU is a developed partner and China a developing partner yet they two are concerned over world development. Especially in the area of developing South-North relations China and EU have reached a range of consensus and both sides can develop fruitful cooperation.

When talking about how to handle possible divergences affecting China-EU relations, Lamy smiled and said astutely, "When we should have divergences we should jump out of the 'box' of multi-lateral talks in exchanging our views to have mutual understanding achieved and consensus reached. When things are seen from this perspective, we will not be adversaries of China."

Lamy spoke highly of "the Doha development agenda" during the interview. He said that this package plan of talks has set out the contents, fields and duration of talks between WTO members. It will be a global all-round talk to bring the WTO into a new era and will play a greater part in pushing sustainable development of the world economy. He pointed out that as shown by past experiences concessions were generally made on the part of the developed to those developing through talks and that China as a developing country will certainly be benefited.

Finally, Lamy happily left his word with this correspondent and through People's Daily to convey his blessing: "I'm strongly convinced that participating in the world economy will bring such a large country as China with a long history and rich natural resources, and what is more important, its people with outstanding wisdom greater job opportunities, a very much improved life and greater opening."

By People's Daily Online

Opening Wider to Outside World with WTO Entry as Opportunity: Commentary

China Becomes Formal WTO Member

Premier Zhu Rongji Meets EU Guests

>> Full Coverage