The year 2021 marked the 20th anniversary of China's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO). On October 19, THU School of Law and Tsinghua University Institute for International Dispute Settlement jointly held a legal conference on the 20th anniversary of China's accession to WTO, to which a number of senior WTO officials, WTO representatives and senior experts in the field of economic, trade and investment were invited, who reviewed the history of China over the two decades since its accession to the WTO, discussed the current hot issues facing the WTO reform and the role played by China, and shared insights on its future development.
The opening ceremony was presided over by Professor and Dean Shen Weixing of THU School of Law. Deputy Secretary of the Tsinghua Party Committee Xiang Botao attended and addressed the seminar, extending thanks to the experts for their participation in the meeting and their support to Tsinghua University Institute for International Dispute Settlement. Zhang Xiangchen, Deputy Director-General of the WTO, attended and addressed the meeting online from Geneva. He especially introduced the preparations and negotiation topics of the 12th Ministerial Conference of WTO (MC12), and called on all parties to work together to promote the progress of MC12 at a time of crisis. Yi Xiaozhun, former Deputy Director-General of the WTO and former Deputy Minister of Commerce of China, pointed out in his speech that the WTO needs to strengthen its leadership and that its members should trust each other, in efforts to promote the recovery of multilateral trade negotiation and dispute settlement mechanisms.
Opening ceremony of the conference
The opening ceremony was followed by two wonderful sessions of thematic discussions. The first session, themed "Twenty Years of China's Accession to the WTO: Dispute Settlement, Review of Negotiations and Domestic Reform", was presided over by Professor Che Pizhao from THU School of Law. Professor Zhang Yuejiao, Dean of Tsinghua University Institute for International Dispute Settlement, opened her speech with welcome and gratitude to the guests attending the conference, and reviewed the benefits and contributions of China's accession to the WTO from a legal perspective, as well as how China could cope with the challenges faced by the current WTO reform. China's accession to the WTO and obtaining unconditional MFN treatment was the greatest benefit, and equality and non-discrimination among members were the cornerstones of the stable development of the multilateral trade system. China had significantly reduced tariffs and opened its market to contribute to the WTO. Zhang Yuejiao called for the restoration of the Appellate Body as soon as possible, enhancing trust and speeding up reform. Zhao Hong, a former judge of the WTO Appellate Body, reviewed the history of the WTO from the perspective of the history of world economy, and discussed the evolution and development of the multilateral trading system and the role of China in it. Hong Xiaodong, former Director of the China Society for World Trade Organization Studies and the World Trade Department of the Ministry of Commerce, looked at China's accession to the WTO from the perspective of service trade, reviewed China's accession negotiations on service trade and China's reform in the field of service trade over the past 20 years, and pointed out that China's accession to the WTO and opening up service trade had promoted the rapid development of China's service sector, improved the regulatory capacity and level, consolidated the foundation of opening up, and brought confidence and ability for further opening up. Tu Xinquan, President of the WTO Research Institute in China, University of International Business and Economics, reviewed the current situation of the reform on WTO subsidy rules, introduced the industrial subsidies and the fulfillment of notification obligations in some developed countries, and pointed out that the direction of the reform could be not to just restrict governments, but how to better regulate governments. Finally, Professor Shi Jingxia from Renmin University of China Law School delivered a speech on the Joint Statement Initiative (JSI) and the reform and direction of the WTO negotiation function from the perspective of the WTO negotiation function.
The second session, themed "Research on Labor Standards, Service Trade Negotiations and Fishery Subsidies", was presided over by Researcher Feng Xuewei from Tsinghua University Institute for International Dispute Settlement. First, Director Liu Jingdong of the International Economic Law Office of the Institute for International Law of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences reviewed the development of labor standard rules in regional trade agreements, and pointed out that labor standards had become standard clauses in high-standard trade and investment agreements, and hat China should respond and adapt to this change as soon as possible. Researcher Feng Xuewei focused on introducing the EU carbon tariff system and its current implementation, and analyzed its compliance with WTO rules, pointing out that it was necessary to avoid providing disguised trade protection for domestic industries with the goal of environmental protection. Next, Counsellor Tian Ya of China's Permanent Mission to the WTO and Counsellor Zhang Ruosi of the WTO's Service Trade and Investment Department participated in the conference online, and delivered speeches entitled "Analysis of the Main Issues in the Negotiation of Fisheries Subsidy Agreement and the main viewpoints of members" and "Enlightenment of the Standard of the Global Data Standardization trend and WTO e-commerce negotiation" respectively.
Finally, Li Chenggang, Permanent Representative of China to WTO and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, delivered a wonderful concluding speech online in Geneva. He pointed out that the study of WTO should keep pace with the times, and China should actively participate in the reform of WTO to promote the steady and far-reaching development of the rules-based multilateral trade system.
This was a grand conference, including more than 400 online and offline participants, who were representatives from universities, societies, law firms and government affairs departments. Participants responded enthusiastically to Tsinghua University's legal conference on the 20th anniversary of China's accession to the WTO, saying that it was a conference of high-end, cutting-edge and profound exchanges and dialogues, contributing China's wisdom to the reform and development of the WTO.
Group photo of experts at the conference
