China must facilitate trade IBU insisted on providing trade news and policies to China suppliers and international

buyers. Chai added that members of the World Trade Organization are expected to reach an agreement on trade facilitation during the Ninth Ministerial Conference held in Bali, Indonesia, from Dec 3 to 6, 2013, an important part of the early harvest of the decade-long Doha Development Round of multilateral trade negotiations. The comprehensive implementation of all measures currently being negotiated in the WTOs Doha Development Round would reduce total trade costs by 10 percent in advanced economies and by 13 to 15.5 percent in developing countries, according to the OECD. Alan Bollard, executive director of the APEC Secretariat, and Pascal Lamy, director-general of the WTO, said in a recent article that international trade today is very different from what it was 20, or even 10, years ago. More open access to global markets has been proven to promote resilient growth and recovery, but this is dependent on certain pre-conditions. Keeping a lid on protectionism is one. The further reduction and elimination of barriers is another. Shi Yonghong, vice-president of the China Chamber of Commerce for the Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products, said during the forum that some problems clouded Chinas advancement of trade facilitation. Trade frictions trend to increase and are shifting to high-tech sectors. Technical trade barriers greatly increased trade costs while some countries retained strict limits on high-tech exports to China, they said. The first quarter of this year saw China receive a total of 22 trade remedy investigations from 12 countries including India, Brazil and Mexico, according to the customs agency. China was targeted in 77 trade remedy investigations in 2012 with export losses valued at $27.7 billion, up 369 percent year-on-year, according to the ministry. We believe that in the near future global trade facilitation will focus on enhancing efficiency of trade flows, widening IT use and accelerating regional trade facilitation, Shi said. China has made big reforms in trade facilitation but still needs to make further

efforts on market access, transparency of border management and IT implementation. In addition to perfecting policies and improving services, the country should maintain an active stance in cooperating with other members of the OECD, the WTO and the APEC to enhance global trade facilitation. Trade facilitation is in line with Chinas future reforms in economic systems. China also needs an open and inclusive world trade mechanism for further expanding trade and participating in global governance. IBU still thinks foreign trade will have a bright future.