Historic trade package sealed at WTO Bali meeting
DATE:2013-12-16 SOURCE:Information Office, MOA
The Ninth World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference (MC9) was convened in Bali, Indonesia during December 3-7, 2013. Chinese delegation headed by Minister of Commerce Gao Hucheng attended the MC9. Vice Minister of Agriculture Niu Dun, Chinese Permanent Ambassador to the WTO Yu Jianhua, and Assistant Minister of Commerce Wang Shouwen also attended the conference as deputy chiefs of the Chinese delegation .
The MC9 adopted the Bali Ministerial Declaration, and reached an agreement on "Early Harvest" in Doha Round. The institution has "truly delivered" for the first time in its history after 12-year-long Doha Round trade talks. "The full Bali package" consists of 10 documents in the areas of trade facilitation, agriculture and development. Agriculture is at the core of "Early Harvest' agreement, and the issues of Tariff Rate Quota (TRQ) administration, food security, and export competition are three components under agriculture area.
The MC9 instructed negotiators to prepare a clearly defined work program on all the outstanding issues of Doha, especially issues in agriculture, development and those most concerned by the least developed countries in the future 12 months.
A research report released by Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) indicated that the "Early Harvest' deal would forcefully promote the global economy and generate more job opportunities. The OECD analysts estimated that over time, the trade facilitation agreement alone could boost the world economy by one trillion US dollars and create 21 million jobs, and could spur export growth by 10% and 5% for developing countries and developed countries respectively.