We must defend the multilateral trading system and promote the reform of global economic governance

Jiang Bo

People’s Daily

La Jornada Newspaper
Thursday, October 30, 2025, p. 11

At a high-level meeting on the Global Initiative for Development (GDI) recently held by China at the United Nations headquarters in New York, China announced that it will not request new special and differential treatment for developing countries in current and future World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations.

WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala hailed this decision as a watershed moment for the WTO, saying it demonstrates China’s commitment to building a more balanced and equitable global trading system. He emphasized that this measure strongly promotes the reform of the WTO, helping to make the organization more adaptable and effective.

The multilateral trading system, with the WTO as its central axis, faces serious challenges. Calls to safeguard the multilateral trading system have gained greater strength across the international community, along with growing expectations for the WTO to play a more active role. Since joining the WTO in 2001, China has achieved rapid economic and social development, becoming the world’s second largest economy, the largest trader of goods and the second largest trader of services.

Associate Professor Hu Jianguo (Nankai University School of Law) notes that China’s growing economic influence now positions it to play a more prominent role in protecting the multilateral trading system, participating in WTO reform, and defining international economic and trade rules.

Ji Wenhua, professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of International Business and Economics, explained that special and differential treatment is an institutional agreement under the WTO that is granted to developing members. As the world’s largest developing country, China has strictly observed WTO rules and fully implemented its commitments since joining the organization. On this basis, Ji said, continuing to exercise their rights in accordance with WTO rules is consistent with international law and WTO principles.

Amid rising unilateral tariffs and trade conflicts that undermine the multilateral trading system, disrupt the global trade order and aggravate economic instability, Ji added that China’s announcement can help break the development stalemate at the WTO, accelerate institutional reform and strengthen developing countries’ confidence in the multilateral trading system.

Han Yong, Director-General of the Department of WTO Affairs of China’s Ministry of Commerce, reaffirmed three guiding principles that remain unchanged: China’s status as a developing member, its commitment to upholding the legitimate rights of developing countries, and its support for the liberalization and facilitation of trade and investment.

Tu Xinquan, dean of the Chinese Institute of WTO Studies at the University of International Business and Economics, explained that this decision, while refraining from seeking additional differential treatment, does not alter its legal status as a developing country within the organization. “China has always been, and will always remain, a member of the Global South, united with other developing countries,” Tu said.

He added that these three “unaltered” principles represent China’s solemn commitment to safeguarding the multilateral trading system and its concrete actions to defend the rightful place of developing countries in global governance.

Ji Wenhua further clarified that China’s position papers and policy statements to the WTO have clearly defined the scope and application of this decision.

First, the decision applies only within the framework of the WTO and does not set a precedent or affect China’s status or treatment in other international organizations or treaties.

Second, it only concerns whether China seeks special and differential treatment in the negotiations and does not alter its developing country status, which remains in line with China’s rules, practice and stage of development in the WTO. Third, the decision applies only to current and future negotiations, and does not affect or apply retroactively to special and differential treatment that China already enjoys or has requested in ongoing negotiations.

Therefore, claims that this decision means that China has become a developed country within the WTO, or that it is no longer a developing country, are incorrect and misleading.

In recent years, China has firmly upheld the multilateral trading system, actively participated in the reform of the WTO and the adaptation of international economic and trade rules, and worked to make the global economic governance system more fair and equitable.