Statement by H. E. Ambassador SUN Zhenyu of China on the WTO Trade Policy Review of New Zealand Thursday,June 11,2009 Posted: 16:16 BJT(0816 GMT)   From:wto    Article type:Translated 10 June 2009 Thank you, Mr. Chairman, I would like to extend our warm welcome to the delegation of New Zealand headed by Ambassador Walker, and thank the New Zealand delegation and the Secretariat for their hard work. I would also like to thank the discussant Mr. Martin Glass for his pertinent comments and questions, which greatly facilitate this review. This review is held at a critical time when all Members are facing the common challenge of the global financial and economic crisis. We believe that it will provide New Zealand with an opportunity to share with Members its experience in dealing with this challenge. Mr. Chairman, China notes with pleasure that New Zealand remains among the most open economies in the world. We appreciate that New Zealand maintains its support for, and commitment to, the strengthening of the multilateral trading system. China is also glad to see that New Zealand attaches high priority to making its laws and regulations transparent and readily accessible. Furthermore, China shares New Zealand’s position of supporting international efforts by the WTO together with other organizations, to discourage protectionist measures which affect negatively trade flows. Mr. Chairman, China is fully aware of New Zealand’s strong commitment to the early conclusion of the Doha round negotiations. The great contributions made by New Zealand in this process are particularly reflected with the remarkable work done by former Ambassador now Minister Groser, Ambassador Falconer and now by Ambassador Walker as the Chairman of this most important negotiation group. New Zealand is definitely the best outsourcing supplier for Ag Negotiating chairs apart from American Cup sailing captains. We look forward to the positive role that New Zealand will continue to play in the future. Mr. Chairman, China and New Zealand are important trading partners, with China being New Zealand’s second largest source of import and its fourth largest export market. The period under review has witnessed a rapid and sound development of our bilateral trade and economic ties. What strengthens our strong and mutually beneficial relations within the multilateral trading system is the FTA between China and New Zealand. This FTA is China’s first comprehensive FTA covering areas of trade in goods, trade in services, investment, and others, which serves as a supplementary driving force of trade liberalization, together with the stable and fundamental role of the multilateral trading system in our bilateral economic and trade relations. Our statistics indicate a bilateral trade volume of 4.4 billion USD in the year of 2008, which was a 19% growth over the previous year despite the impact of the financial crisis. This sound trade performance against the background of the global economic downturn proved the inter-dependent and complementary aspect of our economies and the benefits we can draw through further liberalization efforts. Mr. Chairman, my delegation has submitted two sets of questions under this review. I thank the delegation of New Zealand for providing replies to some of them and look forward to receiving replies to others. Finally, Mr. Chairman, my colleague will certainly look forward to its next Trade Policy Review in 2015, when New Zealand will continue “up the ladder and up the upper ladder”. I wish this trade policy review a great success. Thank you.

Print