China has committed USD 600,000 to support the World Trade Organization (WTO) accession and assist least-developed countries (LDCs). This funding is part of the China Programme, which was launched in July 2011 under the WTO-led Aid for Trade initiative. The programme aims to help LDCs integrate into the global economy by strengthening their participation in WTO activities and assisting those not yet members to join the organization.
The signing ceremony took place during a meeting of trade ministers hosted by Australia at the annual Ministerial Council Meeting of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
The China Programme finances several activities, including an internship programme at the WTO, China Round Tables on WTO accessions, increasing LDC participation in WTO meetings, South-South dialogue on LDCs and development, follow-up workshops to LDCs' Trade Policy Reviews, and an LDCs Experience Sharing Programme. It also supports LDC government officials' participation in WTO ministerial conferences.
Director-General Okonjo-Iweala stated: “I warmly welcome the renewal of this programme, which stands as testimony to China's commitment to facilitating the integration of LDCs into global trade. A substantial part of this programme goes to support LDCs and other economies in the process of acceding to the WTO, an important step in using trade to meet their economic and development objectives. China’s contribution in current challenging times is mostly welcome.”
Minister Wang remarked: “In the past years, by continuously funding various activities of the China Programme, China has been taking every solid step to help developing members, especially the LDCs, better integrate into the multilateral trading system. Noticing the technical assistance resource constraints WTO is currently facing, China raises its contribution to the China Programme to USD 600,000, demonstrating its firm support to WTO capacity building activities for developing members especially the LDCs. In the future, China is willing to continue making contributions, better operate the China Programme together with Secretariat ,and implement Global Development Initiative (GDI) with practical actions.”
Each year sees a review between China's government and WTO Secretariat regarding renewing their Memorandum of Understanding on this initiative.
Since 2008 ,China has contributed approximately USD 11 million (CHF 9 million) towards helping developing economy members ,particularly focusing on integrating more fully within multilateral trade systems .