Chinese Commerce Minister meets WTO Director-General

Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao met with Director-General of the WTO Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on the sidelines of a WTO ministerial meeting in Paris, France on Tuesday, where they held in-depth discussions on the severe global trade situation and WTO reforms, according to a statement released by the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) on Wednesday.

Wang pointed out that, in response to certain member's arbitrarily imposing tariffs, the WTO should strengthen oversight of unilateral tariffs and provide objective, neutral policy recommendations, urging relevant members to ensure their bilateral trade arrangements comply with WTO rules and avoid harming other members' interests, read the statement.

Wang emphasized China's firm commitment to upholding the multilateral trading system and supporting a more significant role for the WTO in global economic governance.

China advocates focusing on the development dimension, pushing for the WTO's 14th Ministerial Conference to achieve outcomes in areas such as agriculture and development, Wang said.

On WTO reforms, China supports promptly restoring the normal functioning of the dispute settlement mechanism, exploring more flexible, efficient, and responsible consensus-based decision-making approaches, accelerating the entry into force of agreements on fisheries subsidies, investment facilitation, and e-commerce, while initiating discussions on trade and environment, supply chain resilience, and artificial intelligence, Wang said.

Besides, WTO also "signed an MOU with Minister Wang to renew China's support of WTO's Least-Developed Countries (LDCs) and Accessions Programme," Okonjo-Iweala wrote in a post on X on Wednesday.