Chinese Minister Hails APEC Meeting as "Fruitful"

Chinese Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Shi Guangsheng on Friday expressed his satisfaction with the eighth informal leadership meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic and Cooperation (APEC) forum, saying that it is "positive" and "fruitful."

Speaking to reporters in the Brunei capital one day after the APEC leadership meeting concluded, Shi said that under the present circumstances, the Asia-Pacific region faces challenges as well as opportunities.

The meeting stressed that APEC should strengthen cooperation in capacity buildup and human resources development in order to narrow the gap between its members and achieve common development.

The APEC leaders agreed that the group should push forward a new round of World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations and provide a balanced and extensive agenda, and stressed that any sub-regional free trade arrangements should respect WTO regulations, Shi said.

Shi went on to say that they also discussed trade, investment and e-commerce, and outlined the future development directions.

As to the Sino-APEC relations, Shi said that as a country of the Asia-Pacific region, China's trade and investment partners are mostly APEC members. It is of great significance for China to strengthen its cooperative relations with other APEC members and to ensure a stable and convenient investment environment in the region, he added.

Shi said that China, ever since it joined the APEC in 1991, has taken a positive and full part in APEC activities which aim at free and beneficial trade and investment and cooperation in economical and technological areas. The series of involvement have pushed forward the process of China's opening to the outside world and its economic reform and helped enhance China's capacity for international cooperation.

Shi said that China will host the ninth APEC leadership meeting and a series of relevant meetings and activities in 2001. China will continuously strengthen cooperation among APEC members on the basis of the Brunei meeting and will contribute to the economic development and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region and the rest of the world.

Referring to the Sino-US trade negotiations, Shi said China and the United States already signed their bilateral trade agreement on November 15, 1999. To accelerate the Geneva multilateral negotiations on China's entry to the WTO, he said,

Chinese and US officials discussed in Brunei some clauses of China's WTO accession agreement and made headway. But the Chinese minister added that there are still problems that need further discussion.

Also on Friday, Long Yongtu, chief negotiator from China's Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, briefed reporters on China's WTO accession negotiations with Mexico, saying Mexico supports China's entry into the world trade body.

China and Mexico have held many rounds of friendly and constructive negotiations in Beijing, Paris and Geneva this year and only a few technical problems need to be settled, he said.

Mexico's "anti-dumping" measures against Chinese products run counter to WTO regulations, Long said, adding that the two countries are discussing the grace period for cutting down these measures.



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