China central to global trade

As China's first ambassador to the World Trade Organization (WTO), Sun Zhenyu is a close observer of the country's integration into the global economy.

China has done a "brilliant job" in fulfilling its WTO commitments and the country is "constructive" in its involvement in WTO discussions, he said in an interview with China Daily yesterday.

"Since joining the WTO in 2001, China has been closely involved in the international economy.

"As the world's third-largest trading nation and second-largest exporter, China is playing a more and more important role in global trade," Sun, who is also a member of the 11th national committee of CPPCC, said.

Although Sun was not directly involved in the multilateral negotiations to join the WTO, he had spent more than two decades with the former Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation.

Since becoming ambassador to the trade organization, Sun and his team have handled the first WTO suit against China, and been involved in multilateral negotiations during the Doha Round of talks, which seek to establish a global trade agreement to liberalize markets.

Over the past six years, China has had the opportunity to develop a deeper understanding of WTO rules and how to apply them to trade relations with other WTO members, Sun said.

The country is also playing a key role in the Doha talks on new WTO trade rules, he said.

In this process, China is in close communications with both developing and developed countries in an effort to safeguard its own interests, the interests of developing countries and also strengthen and improve the multilateral trade system, the ambassador said.

"It is very important for such a large trader like China to make sure the system runs smoothly," Sun said.

Looking ahead, the ambassador said "how to deal with trade frictions" has become a major task for the country.

The value of China's exports surpassed the value of its imports by $262.2 billion last year, mainly because of its role as a kind of "world processing factory", Sun said.

The trade surplus was up almost 48 percent on 2006, according to figures from the General Administration of Customs.

"There are various reasons for the trade imbalance. No trade can survive if it benefits only one side.

"The reason why China's trade with other countries keeps growing so rapidly is because it benefits all partners," the ambassador said.

He said, however, that China should introduce further measures to stimulate its domestic consumption so as to avoid the trade gap from widening, while also expanding its communications and dialogs with its trading partners around the world.

(China Daily 03/05/2008 page6)