| Statement by H.E. Ambassador SUN Zhenyu of China on WTO Trade Policy Review of Turkey |
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| Thursday,December 20,2007 Posted: 23:55 BJT(55 GMT) |
| From:Chinese Mission to WTO Article type:Original |
Mr. Chairman,
First of all, I would like to extend a warm welcome to the delegation of Turkey and thank Madam Guzel, Deputy Undersecretary of Foreign Trade for her comprehensive statement on the developments of Turkey’s economic and trade policy. My thanks also go to the discussant, Ambassador Fernando De Mateo for his profound comments (and questions) and to the Secretariat for its substantive preparatory work for this review.
Mr. Chairman, China notes with pleasure that, since 2001, Turkey has been implementing an ambitious reform program which has been successful in stabilizing and developing its economy in many aspects: the annual average GDP growth rate has reached 7%; the foreign trade volume between 2002 and 2006 has been doubled; and, with the improvement of its investment climate, the annual FDI inflows increased rapidly, reaching a peak of US$20 billion in 2006. China as a Member that has been undertaking a similar development process, would like to work closely with Turkey in sharing our common experiences.
Mr. Chairman, China and Turkey are important trading partners. Trade relations between the two countries have been developing fast in recent years. Bilateral trade volume in 2006 reached more than US$ 8 billion. The first three quarters of this year registers US$8.8 billion of trade volume between the two countries, increasing almost 50% over the same period of the previous year. Furthermore, China and Turkey have developed bilateral cooperation in many fields, including tourism, aviation as well as construction services. We are fully convinced that, with the launching of various initiatives to promote our bilateral cooperation, including the China-Turkey Business Forum, our bilateral trade and economic relations will be enhanced to a higher level.
Having said that, Mr. Chairman, we do have some concerns on some of the trade policies and measures as adopted by Turkey. Our concerns have been included in our questions, and we look forward to their responses. One of our concerns I would like to raise here related to the transparency of Turkey’s trade remedy measures, particularly on timely and full disclosure of information to related enterprises and appropriate explanations on the extent of injury determined. We look forward to discussing with Turkish colleagues, both bilaterally and multilaterally, to address these concerns.
Mr. Chairman, we appreciate the strong commitments of Turkey to the Doha Round and to the multilateral trading system. We commend Turkey for its active participation in the negotiations and we look forward to working closely with Turkey on all subjects with a view to promoting trade and development particularly in sectors of interests to developing Members.
In conclusion, I wish this trade policy review a great success and members of the Turkish delegation coming from Ankara a pleasant stay in Geneva.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
(December 10, 2007, Geneva) |
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