Everyone knows that since Trump’s return to the White House, he has been looking for China’s “problems,” and it seems that anything he does will “cause trouble” to China.On September 23, the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly opened at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
Trump's speech was not smooth. The escalator on the first floor after entering the United Nations headquarters building suddenly got stuck, and the teleprompter once failed during the speech. Sure enough, Trump wantonly accused all countries in the world in his speech. He accused China of buying Russian oil, which gave Russia the funds to continue the Ukrainian crisis. '
Guo Jiangkun, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, stressed that most countries, including the United States and Europe, are conducting trade with Russia, and the normal exchanges and cooperation between Chinese and Russian enterprises are in line with the rules of the WTO and market principles, and should not be targeted at third parties and should not be interfered or influenced.
However, one thing Trump should be quite satisfied with is that at this session of the UN General Assembly, China officially announced a major decision in front of 193 countries. China announced at the high-level meeting of the Global Development Initiative: China will not seek any new special and discriminatory treatment in current and future WTO negotiations.
Li Zhen Steel, the representative and deputy minister for international trade negotiations of the Ministry of Commerce, further stated that this is an important statement of China's position on the international and domestic issues, but one thing we must make clear is that this decision must not be equal to "recognizing that China is already a developed country".
Li Jin Steel once again stressed that China is still the world's largest developing country, and that the status and identity of China's developing countries have not changed.
Here, "Special and Differential Treatment" is "Special and Differential Treatment", or SDT for short, which refers to a policy set up by the World Trade Organization for developing countries, allowing these countries to enjoy certain flexibility and preferential treatment in trade rules and obligations to promote their economic development.
Simply put, this principle allows developing countries to undertake less negotiating obligations than developed countries, such as lower tariff concessions or longer policy transitions, essentially to offset the shortcomings of their weak economic base and under-industrial competitiveness.
In response to China’s decision, WTO Director-General Yevira posted on social media: “This is the result of years of effort and I would like to praise China’s leadership on this issue!” and added: “This releases a strong signal in support of WTO reform and will help create a fairer competitive environment for all members.
As early as Trump’s first term as president, he has repeatedly attacked China, urging the World Trade Organization to change its definition of “developing countries” and call for China to be listed as a developed country.
Trump tweeted: “Some of the world’s richest countries claim to be developing countries in order to circumvent the WTO rules and enjoy special treatment, so the WTO system has ruined and can’t go down like this anymore!”
Trump said: “The United States has never accepted China’s claim to be a developing country, and almost all current economic indicators are contrary to China’s claim. Does anyone think it’s fair? we’re treated badly. The WTO is not fair to the United States.”
At the same time, the White House also issued a memo declaring that the U.S. government has never recognized China's self-proclaimed status as a developing country. Coincidentally, in March 2023, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the draft of the so-called "People's Republic of China is not a developing country law" with 415 votes in favor and 0 votes against.
China severely refutes the wrong measures taken by the United States. China has repeatedly stated that China is the largest developing country in the world. We do not shy away from our due international responsibilities and are willing to undertake obligations in the WTO that are commensurate with our own economic development level and capabilities.
As mentioned earlier, China's announcement that it will not seek any new special and differential treatment in WTO negotiations does not mean giving up China's status as a developing country. The reason why China announced this important decision now once again reflects China's firm position and responsibility as a big country in supporting the multilateral trading system with practical actions.
At the same time, as the second largest economy in the world, China has actively adjusted its role from a beneficiary of the multilateral trading system to a contributor. We should know that since China joined the WTO in 2001, China has strictly fulfilled its WTO commitments, even "overfulfilled its tasks" in some areas, and made significant contributions to the recovery of the world economy.
In addition, in the context of the current rise of trade protectionism and the spread of counter-globalization thinking, China's decision to choose to give up some of the preferences is both an expression of confidence in its own stage of development, but also a positive signal for safeguarding the stability and release of global trade.
In recent years, the United States and Europe have been calling on the World Trade Organization to reform “special and differential treatment,” such as a hearing at the Senate Treasury Committee in 2021, where the United States strongly called on the WTO to reform “special and differential treatment.”
There is no doubt that China, after joining the WTO, has made a huge contribution to the development of the world economy, while the United States now leads to disrupting the rules of trade and disrupting the order of competition.