WORLD Trade Organization (WTO) chief Pascal Lamy gave China high marks Wednesday on its implementation of the global body's trading rules but the Asian giant's record was still not perfect. “The overall appreciation is a positive one,” Lamy said in Shanghai in a speech that reviewed China's WTO performance since it joined in December 2001. “Even if there are still areas that need some improvements, the political commitments and determination shown by the Chinese government are serious and responsible.” The WTO director general applauded the huge boost China had provided to global trade, holding up the earth's fourth-largest economy as exemplary in its reduction of barriers to imports. Lamy pointed to $2.2 trillion worth of goods China had imported from 2001 to 2005 as average import duties dropped to 9.7 percent, down six percentage points from 2001. China had also done well to completely eliminate licensing requirements last year, compared with rules covering about 50 percent of all goods in the late 1980s, Lamy said. Yet while China's membership in the WTO was a “big plus for everyone” its market opening “was not 100 percent”, Lamy said. Imaginative new non-trade barriers had replaced some of the old tariffs, and subsidies, especially to the manufacturing sector, were also a problem. Despite some improvements, particular concerns remained about China's continued abuse of intellectual property rights (IPR), a problem which he described as concerning all WTO members. “This is not just a US-China problem, this is a WTO members-China problem,” Lamy told reporters at post-speech press briefing. He said it was understandable that Washington and Japan had voiced loud and repeated criticism of China's IPR violations since they had most to lose. Lamy attributed the problem to a weak legal system that hindered enforcement rather than a problem of poor regulation or a lack political will in Beijing. “The problem lies on the side of policing and litigation, and of the rule of law that is behind all enforcement (systems).” Lamy said China would succeed in tackling the problem when all “Chinese people at large are convinced that protecting intellectual property is good for them.” The WTO chief, who met Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and Commerce Minister Bo Xilai in Beijing earlier this week, also encouraged China to ensure that the Doha Round of trade liberalizations talks did not fail. He said that overall China stood to gain from WTO rules as its trade-dependent economy made it particularly vulnerable to the threat of growing protectionism. “Given China's insertion into the world economy, multilateral trade opening and strong multilateral disciplines are the best means to safeguard China's trade interests, whether (at) home or abroad.” The Doha Round has been one of the key agenda items during Lamy's China visit this week, with his Chinese hosts calling on the rich nations to make concessions to get the negotiations started again. In late July, Lamy suspended five years of Doha Round negotiations because of a failure by the six major trading powers to reach a compromise on tariffs and subsidies. Efforts to revive stalled talks on global trade liberalization will enter a “crucial period” from mid-November until early next year, Lamy said in remarks published Wednesday in the China Daily. Lamy arrived in China early this week will also attend a trade forum Thursday and Friday in Xiamen, a southeastern coastal city opposite Taiwan.
