China calls for strengthening trade measures supervision and enhancing trade policy transparency at the World Trade Organization

Geneva, December 2 (Xinhua) -- At the official meeting of the World Trade Organization's trade policy review body held on the 2nd, China expressed its position on the latest report on member trade measures supervision released by the WTO, calling on members to fulfill their obligation to report trade measures, strengthen trade policy transparency, and maintain the stable operation of the multilateral trading system.

The Director General of the World Trade Organization, Ivica, attended the meeting and stated that the global trading system is experiencing the most severe turbulence in 80 years, with a significant increase in unilateral tariff measures, geopolitical tensions, and regional conflicts. The number of trade measures and the amount of trade covered in the trade measures supervision report highlight the volatile global trade environment. Meanwhile, the trading system and global trade have demonstrated considerable resilience. About 72% of trade still follows the most favored nation principle. The World Trade Organization will closely monitor the progress in tariffs and will conduct another most favored nation trade share assessment in the near future.

The Chinese side stated that the current global economic uncertainty is intensifying, unilateralism and protectionism are heating up, and trade barriers such as high tariffs have significantly increased, posing severe challenges to the global trade order. In this context, the release of the Trade Measures Monitoring Report by the World Trade Organization is of great significance, providing important information for monitoring changes in trade policies and analyzing their impact, which is conducive to enhancing trade policy transparency and strengthening members' confidence in the multilateral trading system.

The Chinese side pointed out that as a WTO member that has a significant impact on international trade, the United States has not timely informed the WTO of its trade and related measures, which has had a negative impact on the effective operation of the WTO's supervisory functions. The Chinese side calls on members to actively fulfill their transparency obligations. In the current turbulent trade situation, they should proactively and timely report new trade measures, especially arrangements involving tariff changes, whether legally binding or not, which should be included in the scope of monitoring and reporting.

The EU and other members of the World Trade Organization have also stated that transparency is the cornerstone of the multilateral trading system, and support the WTO in continuously strengthening its trade supervision functions, conducting comprehensive impact analysis on relevant trade measures, and helping members better cope with the risks and challenges facing global trade.

The Trade Measures Supervision Report, also known as the "Overview of International Trade Environment Development", is released annually by the World Trade Organization. This report shows that members have taken a large number of new trade measures, and the trade coverage of import related measures has increased more than four times compared to the previous report, reaching $2.64 trillion, accounting for 11.1% of global imports.