Beijing and Washington yesterday called for the revival of the stalled Doha Round of global trade talks. The joint call was made by Minister of Commerce Bo Xilai and visiting US Trade Representative Susan Schwab, according to a statement released by the Ministry of Commerce. Bo said China is ready to push, along with other countries, for an early resumption of the World Trade Organization (WTO) talks. He said he "regrets the suspension of the Doha Round of talks," because setting up a just multilateral trade regime benefits a majority of WTO members. Schwab said the United States would make effort for the restart of the Doha talks, and called for more attention to be paid to market access and development issues, the Ministry of Commerce statement said. The Doha Round was suspended in late July after six major members Australia, Brazil, the European Union, India, Japan and the United States failed to reach a consensus on agricultural and industrial trade. The breakdown of the talks, which were seen as a once-in-a-generation chance to boost growth and ease poverty around the world, is a blow to both developing and developed economies. Bo wants developed countries to make more efforts to restart and get the talks back on track. Schwab said China, which she described as the largest beneficiary of the multilateral trade regime, should play a bigger role. Her spokesman, Sean Spice, said after the talks that "there was a general agreement that market access is an extremely important component" for both the United States and China. Schwab warned last week in the United States that "if we can't get a breakthrough by January, February, March ... it's going to be several years before we get a breakthrough." The protection of intellectual property rights, China's market-economy status and the application for US business visas also topped the meeting of the two trade officials. |
昨天,中美雙方共同呼吁重啟多哈貿易談判。 商務部在一份聲明中說,商務部部長薄熙來和來訪的美方貿易代表蘇珊·施瓦布共同呼吁恢復多哈談判。 薄熙來說,中國愿和其他國家一起努力,推動多哈談判盡快恢復。 薄熙來表示“對多哈談判的中止感到遺憾”,因為建立一個公平的多邊貿易體制能讓世貿組織的大多數成員國獲益。 施瓦布說美國愿為多哈談判的恢復做出努力,并強調要關注市場準入和發(fā)展等問題。 由于澳大利亞、巴西、歐盟、印度、日本和美國六個世貿組織成員未能就農產品和工業(yè)品的貿易問題達成一致,多哈談判于今年7月下旬被迫中止。 多哈談判被視為促進全球經濟發(fā)展和減少貧困的一個千載難逢的好機會,因此,談判的破裂無論對于發(fā)展中國家還是發(fā)達國家都是致命的一擊。 薄熙來表示希望發(fā)達國家能為重啟和推進多哈談判做出更大的努力。 施瓦布說,中國作為多邊貿易體制的最大受益者,應該在多哈談判中發(fā)揮更大的作用。 施瓦布的發(fā)言人肖恩·斯派思在談判結束后說,對于美國和中國而言,“市場準入是一個極其重要的問題,這已成為共識”。 施瓦布上周在美警告說:“如果多哈談判在今年沒有取得任何突破性進展,恐怕就得等到幾年之后了。” 此外,此次中美貿易會談的主要議題還包括知識產權的保護、中國市場經濟的地位以及美國商務簽證的申請問題。 |
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