2007/SOM3/023anx1
Agenda Item: III
Opening and Concluding Remarks by the Moderator
Purpose: Consideration
Submitted by: APEC Secretariat
/ Third Senior Officials’ MeetingCairns, Australia
3 July 2007
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IAP PEER REVIEW OF CHINA
Moderated by Canadian Senior Official John Sloan
Opening Remarks
Thank you very much for being here today to participate in the IAP Peer Review of China. My name is John Sloan and in my capacity as Canada’s Senior Official I have been asked to moderate today’s discussion. In terms of credentials I might bring to the table, many years ago I obtained an undergraduate interdepartmental degree in Chinese Studies, and subsequently served as a commercial officer at the Canadian Embassy in Beijing from 1983-1985.
The rest of the panel is comprised of our real experts, Professor Hongyul Han from Korea and Professor George Manzano from The Philippines, and Mr. Toni Widhiastono from the APEC Secretariat. Professor Han is with the Department of Economics at Hanyang University and Professor Manzano is a Senior Economist at the University of Asia and the Pacific.
The session will follow the usual structure. The experts will spend approximately 15 minutes introducing the Study Report, after which our participants from China will take an equal amount of time making a presentation on key areas considered in the Report. That should leave us with a good two hours for general discussion including a question and answer session. In the last ten minutes, I will close the session with concluding remarks.
Let me open by noting that the emergence of China as a major producer and consumer on the world’s stage is a seismic shift in economic relations with which we are all still coming to terms. China’s continuing high economic growth and robust resource demand are causing rapid changes in production patterns and trade flows within East Asia, and between the region and third markets. In particular, China is becoming more embedded in regional production chains, therefore stimulating wide-spread regional trade growth. China’s growth is also throwing up adjustment challenges for other economies as they seek to adapt to the new economic realities in the Asia-Pacific region. China’s implementation of the trade facilitation and structural reform measures that are at the heart of the APEC agenda is therefore of intense interest to all APEC members. I therefore expect today’s peer review to be both animated and instructive, and would encourage everyone to be frank and constructive with their comments. So as not to take up any more of our limited time, I will immediately turn it over to our two experts.
Concluding Remarks
I would like to take the opportunity to offer some concluding remarks. I would like to thank all participants for their active contribution to this morning’s IAP Peer Review for China. In particular, I would like to offer special thanks to our two experts, Professor Han and Professor Manzano, for their excellent analysis, comprehensive report and professional presentation. I would also like to extend my compliments to the China team for its candid responses to members’ questions. The result has been an informative peer review session.
I would like to make four concluding remarks.
First, the review has confirmed how far China has come since joining APEC in 1991 and its accession to the WTO in 2001. As is clear from our discussion, WTO accession, in particular, acted as a significant catalyst for improvements in China’s IAP. The implementation of commitments under the WTO is obviously supportive of the long-term efforts of China to work towards the Bogor Goals of free and open trade and investment. Participants today deservedly commended appreciable progress in several sectors: lowered barriers in the trade in goods and services; improved tariff structure; abolished import quotas; and WTO-compliant legal provisions for the enforcement of trade standards. They also acknowledged China’s busy negotiating schedule for regional and bilateral free trade agreements. To the extent that these agreements are high quality RTAs/FTAs that lead to liberalisation of trade and investment, they too will contribute to China’s progress towards the Bogor Goals.
Second, while participants today observed that China has made good progress in liberalizing its economy, they also noted that there still exist some areas where additional action could be taken, particularly with respect to services liberalization, the creation of a more transparent, stable and predictable environment for foreign investors, and greater containment of IPR infringement. Now that the initial round of WTO accession inspired reforms have largely been completed, China must determine its priorities for the next step. Continued innovation and consistent and determined implementation of reforms will help China achieve the balanced, sustainable economic growth that current policy mix aims at. We all hope that the APEC IAP review process will be seen as a contribution to this goal.
Third, ongoing economic reform, the benefits of WTO accession and China’s long underlying competitiveness augur well for continuing gains in living standards. As China becomes more embedded in regional and global production chains, its continued commitment to further economic and trade liberalization, combined with additional behind the border structural reform measures, will help spread the benefits of its economic growth throughout the entire Asia-Pacific region. This goal is important for all APEC members.
And finally, as per its objective, the IAP peer review will be beneficial as a reference point for China as it plans its future contributions to the achievement of the Bogor Goals. Every Asia-Pacific economy will benefit from the liberalisation measures China implements and equally, every member economy can learn from what China does, and determine where China’s lessons can be applied in their own economies. Today’s strong showing from the Chinese Team is a testimony to the importance China places on its APEC Peer Review and to the importance we all place on China continuing to take forward its program of economic liberalisation measures.
With this, I would like to close the session, and thank you all once again for your participation, and yet again, wish you all a happy Canada day.
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