Chinese commerce minister appeals for reduction of agricultural export subsidies

Bo Xilai, Chinese Minister of Commerce, Wednesday appealed to other WTO members for largely reducing export subsidies for agricultural products, or even completely eliminating the subsidies.

Bo made the remark in response to a reporter's question on China's position on the WTO agriculture and market access issues at a news briefing on just-concluded World Trade Organization informal ministerial meeting held in Dalian, a port city in northeast China's Liaoning Province.

"We heard that US president George W. Bush proposed to cut off US agricultural export subsidies by the year of 2010, and we felt it is a good news", Bo said.

He urged some developed countries to reduce their current agricultural export subsidies.

The Chinese trade minister said that China always holds a positive attitude toward the issue of reducing trade-distorting domestic subsidies, and called for concerned members to "remarkably cut down the subsidies".

On the market access issue, Bo asked the WTO members to take into consideration of the fact that China still is a new member.

"China is a densely populated agricultural country, some products are very sensitive or even vital to China's agricultural sector," Bo said, noting that China has worked very hard and done a lot to fulfill the commitments it made when it assumed WTO membership three years ago.

Trade ministers from 30 WTO members attended the Dalian meeting and had in-depth discussions on five subjects, namely agriculture, non-agricultural market access, development, services and rules.

The two-day meeting aims to take stock of the DDA negotiations and discuss the progress of the "First Approximations" of the Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration, the key signpost in the lead-up to the WTO Sixth Ministerial Conference to be held in Hong Kong in December.

Source: Xinhua