The 20th Anniversary of China's Accession to the WTO Ministry of Commerce: Earnestly fulfilled the commitments made on China's accession to the WTO

Source: CCTV news client

At 10:00 a.m. today (October 28), the State Council's new office held a press conference to introduce the eighth WTO review of its trade policy toward China.

Wang Shouwen, vice minister of the Ministry of Commerce and deputy representative of international trade negotiations, introduced that this year marks the 20th anniversary of China's accession to the WTO. At the time of Accession to the WTO, China had a Protocol of Accession and a Report of the Working Group on Accession, which set out the obligations to be fulfilled after China's accession to the WTO and set a timetable for China to fulfill its WTO obligations. Comparing this timetable, we will see that we have already fully fulfilled China's obligations under the WTO, and the commitments we have made have also been fully fulfilled. In this regard, several successive directors-generals of the WTO and the vast majority of WTO members have fully affirmed and universally recognized this.

First, in terms of docking the WTO rules, after our accession to the WTO, we need to revise laws, regulations and policies to make them conform to the WTO rules. In this regard, the central government has cleaned up more than 2,000 laws and regulations and departmental rules, and local governments have cleaned up more than 190,000 local policies and regulations. After joining the WTO, according to this timetable, we have made our laws and regulations and policy systems fully comply with WTO rules. For a period of time after China's accession to the WTO, our existing laws and policies must conform to WTO rules, and at the same time, when we formulate new policies, laws, and regulations, we must also ensure that these are in line with WTO rules.

Secondly, in terms of opening up markets, in the field of goods, we have committed to reducing tariffs on goods to 9.8%. At the time of china's accession to the WTO, the tariff on our imports was 15.3 percent, and after joining the WTO, it was to be reduced to 9.8 percent. We did exactly that. Now, today, the total level of China's import tariffs is only 7.4%, which is lower than that of all developing members and close to the level of developed members. We have also opened our markets extensively in the service sector, and the protocol on accession to the WTO and the report of the relevant working groups stipulate that 100 sub-sectors in 9 categories need to be opened in 2007, and now China has actually opened up nearly 120 sub-sectors, which exceeds the commitments we have made.

Third, in terms of abiding by the rules, our laws, regulations, and policies must comply with WTO rules, so have we complied with them? We've done a pretty good job too. For example, in the field of intellectual property rights, in order to increase the protection of intellectual property rights, we have set up intellectual property courts in many places, and in some provinces, we have also set up special intellectual property courts to strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights. Not only are the laws and regulations related to intellectual property rights in line with WTO regulations, but also in terms of implementation, administrative protection and judicial protection, efforts have also been intensified. In terms of transparency, we have informed the WTO in a timely manner of the adjustment and implementation of domestic laws and regulations, and we have submitted more than 1,000 circulars to the WTO. In terms of notification, there is one notification that can be said to be very difficult, that is, subsidy notification. The amount of subsidies given by a country's government to enterprises or certain industries also needs to be notified to the WTO, and many members, especially developing members, believe that this is the most difficult. It can be said that the Chinese Government has overcome many difficulties and informed in a timely manner. In July this year, we have already informed the subsidy policy for 2019-2020, setting an example for other WTO members.

Some rulings are unfavorable to China, some rulings are beneficial to China, whether it is beneficial or unfavorable, as long as it is a WTO ruling, we all recognize that we have implemented it, and there has not been a single case in which the prosecution party has applied for retaliation because China does not accept the WTO ruling. It can be seen from these aspects that China has earnestly fulfilled its commitments made in joining the WTO. (CCTV reporter Kong Luyuan)