US Trade Minister Robert B. Zoellick on Thursday praised China for its role in helping invigorate efforts in launching a new round of global trade negotiations.
"Beginning at APEC last year, China helped invigorate efforts to launch new global negotiations, both through its determined effort to join the WTO as well as through its prodding of other APEC members to support the new negotiations at Doha," Zoellick said in a speech to US-China Business Council.
Zoellick said that he believes China could again play a positive role now that the members of the WTO have decided to advance global trade liberalization.
"The policies that have been at the core of China's spectacular growth in the last 25 years -- progress toward freer markets, greater openness to foreign competition and investment, deregulation and privatization, tariff reduction -- could serve as a model" to other developing countries, Zoellick said.
"China can exercise leadership, not by posturing, but by sharing and expanding from its own experiences," he said. "If China does so, it will benefit, and the world will benefit too."
(China Daily February 1, 2002)
