17 November 2025, WTO Room W

Thank you, Chair.

First of all, I would like to extend my warm welcome to the delegation from Nepal, led by His Excellency Dr Ram Prasad GHIMIRE.

I would also like to thank the WTO Secretariat for the preparation of this trade policy review. I appreciate the insightful comments made by the Discussant, His Excellency Ambassador Katsuro NAGAI of Japan.

China noted that, despite challenges, Nepal's economy has shown resilience and progress since its last review in 2018, achieving an average annual GDP growth of about 3.57% during the review period. We appreciate Nepal's ambition to graduate from the LDC group in 2026 and encourage Nepal to continue to take appropriate economic measures, including trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, to achieve more rapid growth and sustainable development.

The government of Nepal has made substantial progress in post-earthquake reconstruction, particularly in housing, education and health. In the review period, Nepal revised the laws related to foreign investment and promulgated the Customs Tariff Act in 2024. These measures helped to improve the trade and investment environment.

Nepal is a strong supporter of a rule-based, transparent, and non-discriminatory multilateral trading system. We appreciate Nepal's continued and substantive engagement in the multilateral trading system. In this context, we welcome Nepal's ratification of the WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies this year. We applaud Nepal's active participation in the WTO, including through its role as Chairs of the Council for Trade in Services in 2025, the Committee on Trade and Development in 2024, and the Committee on Customs Valuation in 2021. We acknowledge the progress made by Nepal in fulfilling its notification obligation, and hope for further improvements in some areas. We encourage Nepal and will always stand ready to work with Nepal to deepen its engagement in the work of the WTO. We notice Nepal promulgated the E-commerce Act this year, which demonstrates the importance Nepal attaches to e-commerce trade. In this sense, China encourages Nepal to join the E-Commerce Agreement, which will help in the development of e-commerce trade both domestically and internationally. China also encourages Nepal to join the Investment Facilitation for Development Agreement and the MPIA.

On the bilateral aspect, China and Nepal are friendly neighbours connected by mountains and rivers. In Beijing, there is a famous temple named White Pagoda Temple, in which the white pagoda was designed and constructed by a Nepalese artisan in the year 1271. It stands as a symbolic edifice of the long history of exchanges between China and Nepal.

China is Nepal's second-largest investor. By the end of 2024, the stock of China's direct investment in Nepal had reached 510 million USD, covering electricity, manufacturing, and mining industries, which helps to create more job and improve the living standard. China has remained Nepal's second-largest trading partner. Our bilateral trade doubled from 2017 to 2024, reaching 2.2 billion USD. Over the past three years, China's imports from Nepal have maintained sustained growth, helping Nepal to share China's development opportunities. Last week, Nepal's business sector actively participated in the 8th China International Import Expo held in Shanghai, which has become a distinctive platform for showcasing Nepali products and assisting Nepali products to enter China's domestic market.

For the purpose of this review, China submitted some questions.

We thank the delegation of Nepal for their response and will study it carefully.

I wish this trade policy review a great success.

Thank you, Chair.