A senior Chinese trade official said in Beijing Thursday that China is willing to play a more "active and constructive" role in pushing forward a new round of talks of the World Trade Organization (WTO).  

Chinese Vice Minister of Commerce Yu Guangzhou told visiting US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick that China will consult with all members of the WTO, including the United States, to stimulate the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) talks.

The DDA, an international program aiming at reducing trade barriers so as to expand global economic growth, development and opportunity, was frustrated by the broken WTO ministers' meeting in Cancun, Mexico last September.

"China appreciates the US' efforts and pro-active suggestions in some sectors for resuming the talks," Yu said during his meeting with Zoellick Thursday.

The trade officials discussed agricultural issues and treatment of WTO new members in their one-hour talks.

As a key and vital component of the DDA, subsidies for agricultural exports seriously distorted trade in a very direct way. The huge subsidies for some developed WTO members violated the international trade principle of fairness and damaged the developing countries' agriculture, Yu said.

China appreciates the US' suggestion to set a definite timetable for eliminating agricultural export subsidies and its commitment to the removal of export subsidies in export finance, he said.

"Those steps will help to narrow disputes between the developed and developing WTO members, and serve to push forward the new round of talks," the vice minister noted.

Yu also expressed China's worry on further opening of its market.

"As a new member of the WTO, China promised a lot to the organization. We opened and are keeping opening our market strictly in accordance with the pledges. It's very tough for us to open the market on a larger scale in a short term before the existed commitments were all implemented," Yu noted.

Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi, during her meeting with Zoellick Thursday, also insists that China enjoy a special status in the new round of talks and should be granted special and differential treatment.

Zoellick, who had visited Japan and was expected to continue his round-the-world lobbying after his Beijing stop, said the United States appreciates China's constructive suggestions and he hopes the two countries could enhance cooperation for a substantial progress of DDA.

"My Chinese counterparts understand and are fully engaged in WTO implementation and efforts related to that," the top US trade envoy told a news briefing in the US Embassy in Beijing after his meeting with Chinese officials.

China and the United States, as two important members of the WTO and major economies of the world, have a number of common interests in agriculture, manufacturing goods and services, the US trade representative said.

The two countries agreed to have more dialogues at different items and they are looking forward to working together with other countries, he said.

(Xinhua News Agency February 13, 2004)