China's contributions in the DDA - from Ambassador Sun Zhenyu

Statement by H. E. Ambassador Sun Zhenyu At the Informal Trade
Negotiations Committee Meeting
Monday,August 11,2008 Posted: 22:07 BJT(07 GMT)
From:wto Article type:Original

Thank you Chairman,
China would like to thank you and the two Chairs of Ag and NAMA who
really have spent a great deal of time and tried to bridge the gaps of
members, we appreciate very much for your efforts.
We have tried very hard to contribute to the success of the round. It
is a little bit surprised that at this time the US started this finger
pointing. I am surprised because they are now talking about cotton,
sugar, rice of China as seems that we are not going to make any
efforts in the Round. Let me explain what China has contributed in the
round.
Because of our accession negotiations, our tariff in agriculture on
average is 15.2% and now bound at this level, which is lower than the
average of European Union, lower than Canada, lower than Japan, lower
than quite a number of other developed countries on average. But on
that basis, we are committed in this round to cut further down our
tariffs, the applied tariffs deeply. And in Nama, our average is 9%,
bound at that level. And in this round, we will cut about 30% in
applied level. So we are making contributions of 50% of the total
developing countries in terms of applied rate cut. So that is our
contribution.
During the Signaling Conference, my minister gave indications that in
spite of our very extensive commitments in our services schedules, we
are going to make new efforts, we are going to give signals to
consider on condition that others will reciprocate, some new
sub-sectors, and some improved offers, eventually the level of
openness of our service market will be roughly at the same level of
some developed countries. So that will be our contribution.
If you consider what the contributions that developed countries are
going to make, in OTDS the US is spending $7 to 8 billion this year or
last year, maybe a little bit more to 10 billion, but they are
offering $14.5 billion with a lot of policy space for themselves. And
in their tariff cut in agriculture, they are protecting their
sensitivities through sensitive products while they are saying "well
even if we have sensitive products for 5 or 4% of our tariff lines, we
will have TRQ expansions". But they can never expand their TRQ to the
level of China's TRQ quantities. In our case, our TRQ is 9 million
tons for wheat, 7 million tons for corn, 5 million tons for rice. How
about your quota, even after the expansion they will never pass half a
million tons. Where is the new market access to the developed
countries?
In NAMA, they are using erosion trying to cover their sensitivities,
keeping their tariff peak in textiles and garments for another 10
years. They will cover all their sensitivities through various
measures while they are asking China to participate in sectors where
we have great sensitivities, particularly in chemicals, in
electronics, in machinery. We need some kind of protection in those
sectors but they want to bring that down to zero or near zero. So they
have protected their sensitivities very well and now they ask us in
our sensitive areas: "you need more efforts to walk an extra mile
there". So we are in a very difficult position but we still want the
round just for the sake of the multilateral trading system. We have
been trying very hard to bridge the gap so we have some consensus on
erosion, we have indicated our contributions in services, and we have
tried very hard to make improvement for issues that we think we can
show some flexibility. But unfortunately on those important issues
such as SPs and SSM, which affect millions of poor farmers. That is an
area where we can't really make further concessions, particularly the
concerns of LDCs, SVEs, they can not accept too high a trigger or too
low a remedy there. Their concerns have to be considered, their poor
farmers' interests have to be considered. And we also have great
sympathies to the solution of the issue of cotton, and in NAMA, the
solutions for South Africa, for Venezuela, for Bolivia, I think there
are all important issues that we have to settle.
Having said that, Mr. Chairman, we will continue to work, to work with
you, with the two chairs who have made great contributions and also
with all other members, and try very hard to cover the last mile and
to try to make compromise. But the major players, the major developed
players, have to show their flexibilities. This is a development
round. They have to remember that this is a development round. If they
cover all their sensitivities by themselves, and keeping on putting
pressures on developing countries, I think we are going nowhere.
Thank you, Chair.
孙振宇大使在贸易谈判委员会非正式会议上的发言
2008-08-11 21:51 文章来源：wto
文章类型：原创 内容分类：新闻

感谢主席。
主席先生，您和农业及非农两位主席为弥合成员之间的分歧花了大量的时间，中国对你们所做出的努力表示诚挚的感谢。
我们竭尽所能，为多哈回合成功做出贡献。在此时刻，美国却开始进行指责，我对此感到有点惊讶。美国对中国的棉花、食糖、大米等问题指手画脚，好像要说明中国在本轮谈判中不会做任何努力。那么，我就简单介绍一下中国在谈判中已经做出的贡献。
在加入WTO的谈判中，中国将农产品平均关税削减到15.2％，并且约束在该水平。这个关税水平比欧盟低，比加拿大低，比日本低，也比很多其他发达国家的平均水平低。即便如此，中国仍然在本轮谈判中承诺将按成员约定公式进一步大幅削减我国的农产品关税，并且是实施关税。在非农领域，我们现在的平均关税只有9%，并约束在该水平。本轮回合，按照发展中国家最灵活削减方案，我们的实施关税水平将削减30%，并且在此水平上约束。从实施税率的削减来看，中国的贡献率占发展中国家总体贡献的50%。这就是中国的贡献！
在服务出价介绍会上，我的部长表示，尽管中国在其服务贸易减让表中已经做了广泛的承诺，我们仍将做出新的努力。在其他成员能够采取对等行动的前提下，我们将考虑在新的分部门改善出价。最终，我们的服务市场开放水平将基本上与发达国家的开放程度持平。这就是中国的贡献！
我们再看看美国的"贡献"：在"扭曲贸易的补贴总量"（OTDS）方面，美国今年和去年的支出在70－80亿美元之间，或者稍多一点接近100亿美元，但是美国只承诺将约束水平降低到145亿美元，为自己预留了大量的政策空间。在农产品关税削减方面，美国通过"敏感产品"来保护自己的敏感部门，并解释说："虽然我们有4％或5%的产品被列为敏感产品，但我们将扩大关税配额"。但是，美国的关税配额量不管怎么扩大，也不可能达到中国关税配额的量。中国小麦的配额量为900万吨，玉米为
700万吨，稻米为500万吨。你们的配额量又是多少呢？就算此次扩大后，你们的配额量也永远超不过50万吨。请问，美国提供的新的市场准入又在哪儿呢？
在非农领域，美国等发达成员利用弱小经济体提出的"优惠侵蚀"要求免费搭车，保护自己的敏感部门，想把纺织品和服装的关税高峰再保留10年。他们一方面通过各种方式来保护自己的敏感产品，另一方面却要求中国在其十分敏感的部门参加部门减让，特别是化工、电子和机械等领域。我们在这些部门需要适当的保护，但是他们却要求我们将这些部门的关税降为零或接近零。他们将自己的敏感产品保护得严严实实，却在我们的敏感部门要求
"你们需要在那里再做努力，再往前走几里路"。中国目前的处境十分困难，但是为了维护多边贸易体制，我们仍然想使本轮谈判获得成功。为了弥合分歧，我们做出了巨大努力。考虑到弱小经济体的特殊困难，我们在"优惠侵蚀"问题上进一步做出让步，促成共识，在服务贸易领域表示愿意做出贡献，在所有我们认为能显示灵活性的问题上不懈努力地改善出价。但是，在影响我们数百万贫困农民生计的"特殊产品"（SPs）和"特殊保障机制"（SSM）等重要问题上，我们真的不能再让步。特别是对最不发达国家（LDCs）和弱小经济体（SVEs），他们不能接受太高的触发水平和太低的救济水平。这些国家的关注必须得到考虑，他们穷苦农民的利益必须得到基本保障。同时，中国对非洲棉花四国和南非、委内瑞拉和玻利维亚等成员的关注也深表同情。我认为这些重要问题都需要解决。
主席先生，总而言之，中国将继续努力，和您一起，和已经做出不懈努力的农业和非农两位主席一起，和所有的成员一起，为完成最后的谈判，为达成妥协而努力。但是，作为主要参与者的主要发达成员应该显示出他们的灵活性。他们不要忘记本轮谈判是一个以发展为主题的回合。如果发达成员一方面把自己的敏感产品都保护起来，另一方面却继续对发展中成员施压，我想我们将一事无成。
感谢主席。