Dazhong Daily:

In recent years, the restructuring of the global economic governance system has accelerated, and China has been playing an increasingly important role in this process. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, what did China accomplish by participating in WTO reform and expanding the country's free trade agreement network? What progress has been made so far?

Wang Wentao:

I would like to invite Mr. Li to answer these questions.

Li Chenggang:

Thank you for your questions. As you mentioned, during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, global governance has indeed undergone profound restructuring. Economic globalization has faced headwinds, with unilateralism and protectionism on the rise. These factors have dealt a severe blow to the international economic order and governance system. Despite these challenges, China has firmly supported the multilateral trading system and expanded a globally oriented network of high-standard free trade zones, advancing both multilateral cooperation and regional cooperation in parallel.

At the multilateral level, we have firmly supported the multilateral trading system and actively participated in WTO reform to defend the organization's authority. We actively promoted multiple practical outcomes at the 12th and 13th WTO Ministerial Conferences to improve the organization's operations. To enhance the WTO's effectiveness, we led efforts to facilitate the conclusion of several high-level economic and trade agreements, including the Investment Facilitation for Development Agreement and the Agreement on Electronic Commerce. We also engaged extensively in discussions on issues including trading environments, development agendas and supply chain stability, working to ensure international economic and trade rules remain current. In addition, we have honored our commitments by demonstrating the responsibility of a major country, earnestly fulfilling WTO obligations, strengthening trade policy compliance with WTO rules and contributing to the creation of a world-class business environment. We completed bilateral negotiations with Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Ethiopia regarding their accessions to the WTO, supporting the integration of developing countries into the multilateral trading system. Meanwhile, we have participated constructively in multilateral mechanisms, including the G20, BRICS and APEC, and have consistently placed development at the center of the international economic and trade agenda. We promoted the official establishment of the China Center for Cooperation on Development of Special Economic Zones in BRICS Countries in March, which is also a concrete measure to implement the guiding principles of General Secretary Xi Jinping's speech.

At the regional level, we have expanded a globally oriented network of high-standard free trade zones. First, our network of partners has continued to expand. We promoted the signing and implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), making it the world's largest free trade zone in terms of trade volume and population coverage. This year, we completed negotiations on Version 3.0 of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area. We also signed the framework agreement for the China-Africa Economic Partnership for Shared Development with 31 African countries, as well as eight bilateral free trade agreements and upgrade protocols. Second, we have become increasingly open to the outside world. China formally applied to join high-standard agreements such as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA). The country has also exempted tariffs on most commodities with its free trade partners and introduced the negative-list approach for service trade and investment negotiations. Rules in new fields such as the digital economy and green economy have become a focus in each of our negotiations. Third, free trade dividends have been further expanded. Last year, our exports to free trade partners reached 10.06 trillion yuan, an increase of 7.6% from the previous year. Our imports from free trade partners reached 9.01 trillion yuan, up 4.1% year on year. Both figures exceeded our overall import and export growth rate for the same period. Overall, high-level free trade arrangements have delivered win-win cooperation and common development. Currently, whether at the multilateral or regional level, the appeal of China's initiatives has increased significantly, the influence of China's positions has expanded considerably, and the cohesive power of China's solutions has risen greatly. Thank you.