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2004年1月WTO对美国贸易政策审议-中国代表团的发言(英文)
              Statement of the Chinese Delegation
          at the WTO Trade Policy Review of the United States
                   January 14, 2004

Mme. Chair,

  I would like to welcome the US Delegation headed by Ambassador Deily with representatives from Washington and her colleagues of the US WTO Permanent Mission for the review. We express our thanks to Ambassador Deily for her introductory statement with respect to the development of the macro-economic situation as well as trade policy and practices of the US since the last review. Our thanks also go to the discussant Ambassador Chung for the detailed and in-depth comments he made on the US trade policy. We regard highly his last contribution to WTO after 3 year excellent job representing Korea in Geneva. We wish his well in his future career. We appreciate the efforts made by the US Government and the WTO Secretariat for their respective reports for the review.

  Mme. Chair, as noted in the US Government Report, the economy of the United Sates experienced a short period of recession after the previous review, which, in our opinion, is mainly attributed to its domestic structural problems. We are pleased to see, however, that there has been some strong light for recovery during recent months. As the sole existing superpower in the world today, the United States has played many times a role of an engine in the long history of the world economy. We wish that the desirable momentum of the US trade and economy will be maintained and strengthened so as to help promote further the growth of the world economy and trade.

  Given its prominent and important position in the world economy, the macro economic and trade policy and practices of the US would undoubtedly have significant impact on the evolution of the multilateral trading system. As a founding member of GATT and WTO, the United States has made great contributions to the development and strengthening of the multilateral trading system. The United States has been constantly in favour of an open international trade regime and has on many occasions played a leading role in the previous rounds of negotiations. The current simple average tariff of the US is only 3.6% and its average applied tariff rate is even lower. All these are commendable.

  However, given its high level of development, its large economic scale and its pivotal position in the multilateral trading system, there is much room for improvement with respect to its implementation of the multilateral trading rules and the principle of free and open trade. It is a regret that, in certain areas, the standards the US set for itself are even lower than that of the newly acceded members. Just as our discussant Ambassador Chung has rightly pointed out: The US tariffs are yet to be fully bound. It has so far still maintained tariff peaks and tariff escalations on a number of products such as agricultural goods, textiles and clothing. Its trade-distorting subsidies to its agriculture remain at a high level. The US has been a frequent user of such trade remedies as anti-dumping and countervailing measures as well as non-tariff barriers related to TBT and SPS. The restrictions it imposed on export of technologies have seriously hampered normal trade relations with some countries. The excessively tight security measures it adopted in the trade area have also constituted disturbing barriers to trade facilitation. The United States is in quite a few cases found refusing to implement or trying to postpone the implementation of the rulings by DSB or the Textile Monitoring Body with respect to trade disputes. All of the above has not only injured the image of the United States as a promoter for open trade, but has also produced negative effect on the stable and constant growth of the world trade and economy and those of its own in a long run. We are interested in what measure the US will take to address these existing problems.

  Here I would like to make a special reference to the 2002 US Farm Bill. This Bill is a serious deviation from the principles and ambitious objectives as enshrined in the Doha Development Agenda for the negotiations on agriculture, which was strongly supported by the US. The enormous amount of domestic subsidies to its agriculture provided under the Bill have severe trade distorting effects on the international trade in agricultural products. Such a Bill not only undermines the capacity of the US and its influence on the Doha Round negotiations, of which the issue of agriculture is at the centre, but also has a serious adverse impact on the healthy and sustainable development of the US agriculture.

  Madame Chair, the trade and economic cooperation between the US and China has been rapidly developing since the establishment of the Sino-US diplomatic relations in 1979. The United States is now the second largest trading partner of China, while China ranks No.4 among the trading partners of the US. The economies of the two countries are highly complementary.

  When talking about the Sino-US economic and trade relations, however, we could not but point out that some of the current US trade policy and practices are of great concern to us. One of the examples is that the United States has so far still regarded China as a “non-market economy” in its anti-dumping investigations. This is unfair. After 25 years’ reform and opening to the outside world, tremendous changes have taken place in China’s economic and trade regime. It is our hope that the United States will acknowledge such changes and put an end to the “non-market economy” treatment in any possible future anti-dumping investigations, giving normal treatment for the Chinese enterprises and stopping the practice of taking a “surrogate country” for reference.

  Having said that, Mme. Chair, I would like to reiterate China's welcome to the repeal of the steel safeguards by the US Government on December 5, 2003. At the same time, we also want to point out that such measures had greatly disrupted the international steel trade order in the period of its implementation. China hopes that the US will hold a broad vision in making future decisions on its trade policy and practices, refrain from doing anything to damage the interests of other Members and the credibility of the US in the multilateral trading system just for the sake of its short-term domestic political objectives.

  Mme. Chair, we have submitted our questions in writing with respect to this review and are looking forward to replies from the US. China is of the view that as a strong nation well-developed in trade and economy, the United States has special obligations and responsibilities for the economic and trade development of the world and for the healthy development of the multilateral trading system. We hope that the US will faithfully fulfill these obligations and responsibilities and play a positive and constructive role, proportioned to its level of development and economic capacity, so as to bring the current trade negotiations back on track and make its due contributions to the growth of the world trade and economy.

  Finally,I wish the review of the US trade policy a complete success.

  I thank you, Mme. Chair.
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