Chairman of the 2001 APEC MRT meeting Shi Guangsheng met with Jim Sutton, New Zealand minister of agriculture and trade negotiations at Shanghai International Convention Center on Tuesday.
Shi, also Chinese Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, said that China and New Zealand have had good cooperation on various APEC meetings.
He expressed the hope that the two sides will keep cooperating on the coming meetings.
He said that APEC economies, including New Zealand, have done a lot of preparations for the MRT meeting. The meeting will focus on the discussion about the position APEC should hold in the new round of WTO negotiations.
He expressed the hope that the MRT meeting will reach a concensus and send a more relaxed signal to the WTO ministerial meeting to be held in Doha, Qatar in November.
Shi explained the Chinese position on promoting economic and technical cooperation among APEC members within the APEC framework, saying that the two wheels of APEC should continue to run together.
Sutton, also the head of the New Zealand delegation to the 2001 APEC MRT meeting, said that a new round of WTO negotiations should be launched as early as possible. He said that New Zealand has been looking forward to the series of APEC meetings in China.
(Xinhua 06/06/2001 )
