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Supachai: China's WTO Entry "Big Pie" for Everyone
The incoming director-general of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Friday compared the Chinese market to a "big pie" that everyone will be able to share.
"China's (WTO) entry provides a big pie for everyone. The market would have to be competitive, and everyone can compete in this market including the Chinese producers. It is up to preparation to compete," Supachai said in an interview with Xinhua.
Supachai is here for the APEC Youth Festival-APEC Young Leaders/ Entrepreneurs Forum as a special guest, which closed Friday.
Supachai said that China's WTO membership will certainly promote trade and economic development in the country, the Asia- Pacific region and the world at large, which is significant.
"China's entry is a recognition of China's success in upgrading its economic system to be part of a multilevel framework," he said. "China will have more transparency and the vast Chinese market will be more open to the world, and vice versa."
China's entry will reduce Asia's, especially Southeast Asian countries' dependence on the American and European markets, which will improve the balance of world trade, he said, stressing that countries all over the world will have more opportunities to conduct economic cooperation with China.
Supachai, former prime minister of Thailand and a renowned economist, has supported China's WTO entry since the mid-1990s. China's entry will be a major topic of discussion at the Qatar meeting of trade ministers of WTO members in November, and there is a possibility that China will enter the organization this year, he said.
He said China's entry will intensify competition, but not necessarily pose a threat to other Asian countries; instead, it will promote the common prosperity in the region.
Supachai, who will assume the post of Director-General of the WTO in September 2002, expressed the belief that the recent trade disputes between China and other countries will not have a negative impact on its WTO entry.
He also believed that China will certainly abide by the WTO rules. "Chinese leadership is very serious and determined (in its entry), and Chinese WTO negotiators have made reasonable commitments. They have already implemented (some commitments) on unilateral basis. This is demonstration of China's seriousness in abiding by the WTO rules," he said.
As for challenges and opportunities, he said China will see three to five years of "painful" adjustments, during which China will have to cut some subsidies, reform its banking system and make more laws and regulations.
"China will definitely have prospects, because it will enjoy benefits from the WTO and will have chances of becoming part of the new round of WTO negotiations."
Against the backdrop of a worldwide economic slowdown, China, with its huge economic potential, will give momentum to the world economy, he said.
Supachai also spoke highly of APEC's role in promoting the development of world trade, hoping the summit of leaders of APEC economies in Shanghai this October would make some contributions to that effort.
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