国内英语资讯:Full text of Chinese Premier Lis speech at 12th China-EU business summit_时事

国内英语资讯:Full text of Chinese Premier Lis speech at 12th China-EU business summit

Some people raised the issue of fair trade. As a matter of fact, free trade is the premise of fair trade. Restricting free trade will not make trade fairer. Fairness is an inherent feature of free trade, and trade, if not fair, will not be sustainable. Fair trade should reflect multilateral, inclusive and non-discriminatory principles. Attempting to impose unilateral rules or making fair trade a political issue will not lead anywhere.

China and the EU need to jointly uphold the rules-based multilateral economic and trade order. The multilateral trading regime with the WTO at its core provides important institutional safeguard for economic globalization. Its authority and efficacy should be respected and upheld. Even though some of the multilateral rules may no longer reflect changing circumstances, we can all engage in consultations on improving them. No one should turn a blind eye to these rules, still less try to start anew.

China has fully honored its commitments as a member of the WTO, and other members are supposed to do the same. The EU is a leading maker of modern economic and trade rules and a standard-bearer of regional economic cooperation. As such, it is in the interests of the EU to observe multilateral rules and uphold the multilateral system. Article 15 of China's WTO Accession Protocol is a "sunset clause," which obliges all members to unconditionally cease, upon the date of its expiry, the application of analogue country methodology in their anti-dumping investigations against China. On the issue of complying with Article 15 obligations, we hope the EU will send a positive signal of upholding the multilateral system and rules. If all WTO members chose to observe international rules in a selective way, this would trigger cycles of reactions and undercut the foundation of the multilateral order. No one will emerge as a winner eventually.