Mr Chairman SHI Jianjun,

Assistant Minister WANG Shouwen,

Professor Shu,

Distinguished guests,

Ladies and gentlemen,

It is a great pleasure to be able to visit this prestigious institution as part of my first official visit to China as Director-General. 

The University of International Business and Economics is world renowned for the quality of its graduates — many of whom go on to take senior positions in the Chinese Government advancing China’s international trade interests around the world. 

In fact I am a little bit worried that perhaps you do your job too well.  As a former trade negotiator for Brazil, many a time I have seen your negotiators in action and I can tell you that they represent China’s interests with the greatest of skills and diplomacy.

One thing I always hear from them — and which I strongly welcome — is about China’s unwavering commitment to the multilateral trading system.

I have seen that again as recently as this very last weekend. China’s leadership at the recently concluded APEC meeting of Ministers Responsible for Trade in Qingdao has produced a very strong declaration in support of the WTO. I was very impressed with what I heard from Minister Gao and other APEC Ministers about their strong support for the post Bali agenda and the Doha Round.

Indeed our post Bali work is what I want to speak to you about today.

I think that China now feels at home in the WTO.  In fact more than that, China has become a key player in the organization.

You have now been a WTO member for over 12 years — and have become central to everything we do.

China certainly played a crucial role in delivering the Bali Package at the WTO Ministerial Conference last December.

This success demonstrated, for the first time, that the WTO can reach multilaterally agreed outcomes. It was the first such deal since the organization was created in 1995. So it has given the WTO a new and fresh perspective for the future.

Our challenge now is to make the case for going even further to strengthen the multilateral trading system.

And I am going to need China’s help and support on that.

I believe in the principle of multilateralism.

Opening markets and promoting a truly global economy means being part of an interconnected world where countries interact and do business under agreed rules and where disputes are settled in a fair and transparent way.

In this way it helps to promote peace, stability and cooperation.

And it certainly helps to improve people’s lives.

China’s recent history has shown the power of openness — and I believe it has shown the importance of the multilateral trading system too.

In his speech on the 10th anniversary of China’s WTO membership, Premier Wen Jiabao said:

“China’s opening to the outside world in the past 30 years and more tells us that only an open and inclusive country can be strong and prosperous.”

And, of course, he was absolutely right.

Those radical reforms — supported by the process of WTO accession — saw China’s simple average tariff falling from about 40 per cent in 1985 to under 10 per cent today. Your trade-weighted average tariff is now just over 4 per cent, which makes it the lowest among the big emerging economies.

And the results have been impressive.

The pursuit of an export-led growth model has led China from having a share of just 1 per cent of global trade in 1980 to become the world’s biggest trading nation today.

The developmental impact has also been huge. Poverty levels in China have tumbled from 60 per cent in 1980 to 12 per cent in 2010.

It is a staggering achievement.  The rest of the world has watched in awe. 

And the process of reform continues.

The Party’s third plenum in November last year stressed the importance of continued reform and opening up. This included deepening economic reform — and I quote — “by centering on the decisive role of the market”.

This is welcome. It will continue to support China’s growth and development within an interconnected, global economy.

Since December, WTO members have been working hard to build on the success of the Bali Package and restore the WTO’s central role in the global economy.

The current macroeconomic conditions bring this into focus.

International trade is still feeling the aftershocks of the global financial crisis.

For the last two years, global trade growth has averaged just 2.2 per cent — a long way below its historical average.

Looking ahead, we are a little more positive.

We expect a broad-based but modest upturn in the volume of world trade in 2014, and further consolidation of this growth in 2015. 

For 2014, world trade should rise by 4.7 per cent. This is not yet quite at the historical average, but is definitely a step in the right direction.

Forecasts for 2015 are much more uncertain because, of course, they are based on longer-term assumptions about the evolution of the world economy between now and then. 

On that basis, we foresee a 5.3 per cent increase in world trade in 2015. If we reach that number, we will have reached the level of the 20-year historical average.

Despite this relatively positive outlook, the figures are not quite where one might have hoped they would be. They remain modest and the risk of setback remains present.

But WTO members are not mere observers. They can help change this scenario. We can actively support trade growth — first, by avoiding protectionism.

Therefore, our work in monitoring trade developments around the world remains critically important. We must detect trade-restrictive measures in their early stages; wherever they show up, we must discourage their adoption and encourage their dismantling.

Second, members can support growth by strengthening and updating the rules-based multilateral trading system through reaching new trade agreements.

The success in Bali made this point eloquently.

The Bali Package promises significant gains once implemented — particularly in terms of the Trade Facilitation Agreement. Economists estimate that by implementing that agreement, and therefore making it quicker and easier to do business across borders, we could inject up to $1 trillion to the global economy. 21 million jobs could be created; most of them in the developing world.

Work to ensure the swift entry into force and efficient operation of the Agreement is progressing in Geneva as we speak. We have just concluded the legal review of the text agreed in Bali and I hope we can conclude the most critical work of the Preparatory Committee before the summer break. 

Bali showed that the WTO can deliver in a big way. But the credibility of any future multilateral agreement will hinge on the effective and efficient implementation of this first multilateral outcome.

We have to make sure that Bali is just the beginning — and use that momentum to deliver even more.

And this brings me to the most important thing we’re doing in Geneva at the moment to strengthen the multilateral system.

As instructed by Ministers in Bali, delegations in Geneva have started work to prepare, by the end of this year, a clearly defined work programme to conclude the Doha Round.

And there are some really important issues on the table. In my view, any engagement here will have to tackle the really tough areas upfront: industrial goods, services, and agriculture. China is a key player on all of these issues.

These three issues have not been seriously discussed in nearly six years. That’s far too long. So now it is time to bring them back into play. We cannot avoid them anymore. And we need to retain the sense of urgency that was so important in Bali.

If we make progress on these issues, then everything else will fall into place, I have no doubt. If we don’t, then any progress elsewhere is going to be very, very limited.

And I think there is a different mood now — things have changed since these issues were last discussed.

I have travelled to numerous countries around the world in recent months and met many leaders — and the message I’m hearing is very positive.

Because of Bali, people are willing to give us another chance at completing these negotiations and making a once-in-a-generation leap forward in the trade agenda.

And we have to seize this chance — if we don’t, we may have to wait a long time for another one to come along. 

It is clear that many countries have started to look for other options. That’s perfectly understandable given that the WTO has not delivered for so long. But I think many were surprised by the Bali outcome — and they are prepared to give us one more chance.

But we need another Bali effort — we cannot afford to fail again.

The trade debate has evolved in recent years.

For some countries, a lot of focus is currently on regional and plurilateral trade agreements. But I don’t believe that this is at the expense of our work at the multilateral level.

These initiatives clearly have a role to play — indeed, I believe that they are an important complement to the multilateral system. One very important plurilateral undertaking is being conducted in the WTO itself — the expansion of the Information Technology Agreement — and we consider it a truly big and consequential agreement for trade and economic development. China is an important player in this negotiation and I understand there were discussions on this in the margins of the Qingdao APEC meeting.

But it is clear that these initiatives are not sufficient on their own. Many of the big issues can only be tackled at the global level — and therefore many of the big gains can only be delivered at this level too — such as:

• further streamlining customs procedures;
• tackling agricultural subsidies;
• dealing with regulations on critical areas such as telecommunications or financial services;
• developing disciplines on non-tariff barriers which, in today’s world, is the most critical factor for trans-border transactions.

Therefore, the different tracks have to exist together — they are symbiotic. 

But how these regional initiatives are pursued, alongside efforts to revitalize and strengthen the multilateral trading system, will be an important factor in how the global trading system evolves in the coming years.

And we do need to evolve.

The world is changing rapidly — I don’t have to tell you that.  You can see it in China’s success of recent years.

Emerging economic players, technological innovation and new trade patterns are changing the way governments use and design trade policies to capture economic gains.

The rise of new global patterns of production is a case in point.

This new architecture of trans-border production can help countries to integrate into the global system. Trading in parts and components, or performing intermediate tasks, has lowered the threshold for countries to participate in international trade and to attract investments.

However, the benefits are not automatic, and the formula for full integration into global trade flows will necessarily be country-specific. We will not have a “one-size-fits-all” approach. The right mix of economic and social policies will vary from country to country.  

While some have been successful in participating in global value chains, a significant number of low-income countries, particularly the least-developed, are still absent.

And, of course, the benefits can vary considerably depending on whether a country operates at the high or at the low end of the value chain.

The effective implementation of the Trade Facilitation Agreement and the further reduction of tariff barriers and distortive measures in the context of the Doha negotiations can help remove some of the constraints that have prevented countries from participating in global production chains.

But to fully capture the effects and implications of this evolving trend, further analysis is needed to improve our understanding and help governments to harness the benefits.

The academic world — so well represented in this audience — can offer a fundamental contribution in this regard.

The emergence of new challenges to global trade does not detract from the importance of the issues that we currently have on the table in Geneva — in fact it’s quite the reverse.

Addressing outstanding market access barriers and trade-distorting practices in agriculture, industrial goods and services remains crucial — not only to redress old imbalances in world trade, but also to reduce remaining barriers and open up new markets and opportunities.

And China has a crucial role to play here.

As I have already indicated, your commitment and engagement were important in making the breakthrough in Bali. 

So we must maintain this kind of engagement across the board.

We need an approach that:

• respects the political and economic limitations of each member;
• finds meaningful outcomes of interest to all; and
• keeps us moving in the right direction.

And we need it now more than ever to build on the success of Bali. And we need to do it quickly. This is how we will go from strength to strength, and further bolster the multilateral trading system.

In this sense it is important to acknowledge as well that the Doha Development Agenda is not the round to end all rounds.

Rather, it is part of a continuous process in the direction of trade liberalization.

Our worst-case scenario is where this flow of negotiations is broken and we abandon multilateralism and the huge gains that only this format of negotiations can truly deliver.

It would be an historic opportunity lost.

I quoted earlier from Premier Wen’s speech on the 10th anniversary of WTO membership.

The title of that speech was “China will Keep its Door Open Forever.”

It’s a strong message — and one which should inspire us all.

China’s own experience shows how big and how transformative the benefits of opening up and participating in the multilateral system can be.

So I ask you to maintain your engagement and support in this work as we meet the challenges ahead.

Let’s build on Bali so that we can:

• deliver the economic gains that are on the table now,
• strengthen the system for the future, and
• help the people that the WTO was created to serve.

I am counting on China’s support.

Thank you.