A few days ago, World Trade Organization spokesperson Keith Rockwell said in an exclusive interview with a headquarter reporter in Geneva that during the “13th Five-Year Plan” period, facing the complicated international environment, China has always supported the multilateral trading system with the WTO at its core. , To promote trade liberalization and facilitation, to substantially open the market, and to inject strong impetus into the world economy.
During the “Thirteenth Five-Year Plan” period, the world economy has undergone profound adjustments, unilateralism and trade protectionism have risen, and economic globalization has been hindered. However, China has always unswervingly expanded its opening to the outside world, and the scale of foreign trade has reached a record high.
WTO spokesperson Keith Rockwell: China has become the world’s largest trading nation, partly because of China’s accession to the WTO. On the other hand, because of the efforts of the Chinese people, the Chinese government has formulated a series of policies, and these policies are crucial.
In 2018, the scale of my country’s import and export of goods exceeded US$4.6 trillion (approximately 31 trillion yuan), breaking through the 30 trillion yuan mark for the first time in RMB. In 2019, my country’s total import and export value of goods trade was 31.54 trillion yuan, an increase of 3.4% over 2018.
In Rockwell’s view, behind the bright economic data are a series of measures taken by the Chinese government to promote trade liberalization and facilitation.
WTO spokesperson Keith Rockwell: China’s average tariffs on commodities are 15% for agricultural products and 9% for industrial products. Due to the measures announced by the Chinese government in the past few years, these actual tax rates have fallen. At the same time, China has always been an advocate in the field of e-commerce, and it has also been very active in domestic supervision and services, as well as helping small businesses participate in the global trading system.
Since the beginning of this year, the new crown pneumonia epidemic has pushed the global economy to a trough, and China has controlled the epidemic in a short period of time, restored the order of production and life, and became the first major economy to resume growth since the outbreak.
WTO spokesperson Keith Rockwell: The data we just released for the second quarter show that global trade in goods fell by 14.3% in the second quarter, and trade in services fell by 7.1% in the first quarter. And China (the economy) has recovered. China’s trade increased by 7% in July and probably over 9% in August, but don’t forget that China’s trade contracted by 7% in March. So under this circumstance, China’s economic performance in the past few months has indeed left a very deep impression on people.
The rise of the Chinese economy against the trend has allowed Rockwell to see the vitality and resilience of the Chinese economy. He expressed confidence in China’s future economic development.
WTO spokesperson Keith Rockwell: China’s economy may reach 9% or more than 9% growth next year. That would be very dazzling, but I think there are still challenges in the future. I know that the Chinese have realized this. , They will continue to work hard to deal with it.
As Rockwell said, China’s economic development faces complex and severe external challenges, and China has always been able to recognize its historical position and seek progress while maintaining stability.
Rockwell has served as the spokesperson of the WTO for more than 20 years. He has personally experienced China’s WTO accession negotiations and witnessed China’s leap-forward growth from a “new member” to a “leader” of the WTO. He said that China has always been an active partner of the WTO and firmly upholds the multilateral trading system based on the WTO.
