Lamy expects China to play leadership role in WTO

World Trade Organization (WTO) chief Pascal Lamy said on Tuesday that he expected China to play a leadership role within the WTO in the future.

The WTO director-general was answering questions during an online chat with participants from around the world.

Responding to a question on China's future role within the 149- member WTO, Lamy answered: "A big role, a leadership role."

He also expected other developing countries, such as India and Brazil, to take greater shares within the WTO, which he said will continue to grow from here to 2015.

Commenting on China's compliance with WTO rules since its entry in 2001, Lamy said the country had made huge efforts and WTO members recognized this.

He said, however, like other members, China can still improve its performance, adding that annual WTO reviews are meant to help China and its many local and regional authorities implement WTO commitments to their benefit and that of the entire multilateral system.

According to the WTO chief, the EU and the United States are today's elephants in world trade, but China, India, Brazil or South Africa will be the elephants of the 21st century.

He added all the above-mentioned countries need to cooperate closely with each other and with the rest of the international community to ensure a harmonious development of trade and economic relations.

"All of them need to tango together!" he stressed.

On the prospect of the Doha round of world trade negotiations, the director-general said that about 60 percent of the work has been done, and it is still possible to finish the remaining 40 percent of the work by the end of the year.

Source: Xinhua