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Swedish Trade Minister Urges Support for China's WTO Bid
Swedish Trade Minister Leif Pagrotsky called for support for China's bid to enter the World Trade Organization (WTO) in a signed article published on the country's largest daily Dagens Nyheter on Thursday.
Describing those who oppose China's entry as "narrow-minded and short-sighted," Pagrotsky said it is necessary--to both the world and China itself--for the Asian giant to join the bloc.
As China is already a trade power in the world, discussions on its WTO bid concern not whether China should be isolated or engaged but whether it should be allowed to be integrated with the world economy in order to have it comply with the general international practice, he said in the article.
He said that a WTO membership would impel China to open its market to foreign enterprises, encourage its exchanges with foreign countries and promote political stability across the east Asian region.
He noted that in the past two decades, more than 200 million people have been lifted out of poverty in China, the country's living standard has been markedly raised, small enterprises have obtained unprecedented room for development while the number of internet users rocketed from 2 million to 10 million in the past year.
Attributing the changes to China's implementation of the reform and opening up policy initiated by late leader Deng Xiaoping, Pagrotsky said China's entry into the WTO is bound to push it further on the same track.
He said that China has become the world's seventh largest economic entity, 10th largest trade partner and top producer of steel, coal, cement, chemical fertilizer, textile, batteries and TV sets. It is the fast growing developing country at present but its per capita income stands in as low as the 81st place in the world.
"A country that is so important and in need of development must be closely linked to other countries," Pagrotsky concluded at the end of his article.
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