中华人民共和国常驻世贸组织代表团

Permanent Mission of the People's Republic of China to the World Trade Organization

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Statement by H.E. Ambassador LI Chenggang at the TNC and HoDs Meeting

4 May 2022

Thank you, DG for convening today’s meeting and also for your report. Thanks also go to the negotiating Chairs and facilitators for the reports and the tireless efforts in the past weeks and days.

I will make comments on two aspects, one on arrangements for meetings, the other on deliverables.

First on arrangements, China fully understands that this ministerial meeting is different from the ones we usually have. In the meantime, as our ministers are coming to the town, 3-minute general statement on issues of the WTO will be the most important multilateral event to them during the MC12. We understand the limitation in WTO premise, but from China’s perspective, allocating a room for all ministers to deliver their statements even with limited number of audience will be a better choice.

For thematic sessions, we are looking forward to the early dissemination of the information. In the meantime, we do hope that the conversation among our ministers will focus on WTO business as much as possible and serve the purpose of the designed sessions.

Now on deliverables, as many members have mentioned, this MC will not be a negotiating one. It means we should speed up the negotiations to reach deliverables as many as we can before MC12. China is committed to constructively cooperating with members for a successful MC12. In the meantime, due to the limited time, we should be pragmatic and focus on the possible outcomes.

Specifically, on outcome document, China is open to the format Chair has mentioned. We have a very good basis from our last year’s discussion. Agreed elements could be retained if possible. Meanwhile, we shall well manage the description on the issues we are not able to harvest this time. The wording shall facilitate the work after MC12 rather than causing more divergence or debate.

On WTO response to pandemic, the text should be balanced on addressing interests and elements of all members. The principle of not changing members’ existing WTO rights and obligations we all agreed before should be well observed. The interests of developing members should be well reflected in the outcome document.

In terms of IP waiver, China would like to thank DG and DDG Anabel for leading and promoting the Quad discussion. China will continue to actively and constructively engage in the following discussions with a view to achieving an outcome before MC12.

On WTO reform, we have reached consensus on some elements, but others need more work. China sees this as a must for MC12 since we need ministers’ guidance to start the work after MC12.

On fisheries subsidies, we support Chair’s work plan. We hope members can find the landing zone on various remaining issues. And we also believe not introducing new controversial issue is key to the possible success.

On agriculture, we appreciate Chair’s efforts but have not seen the way out for Chair’s text yet. So, we may need to take a more realistic attitude focusing on the possible outcomes. If there is a session on food security, we need clear information on how it is going to be organized and what outcomes are expected.

Before concluding, I hope the Secretariat could finalize the logistics arrangement of MC12 as soon as possible, including the information on thematic sessions.

Thank you!