The head of the World Trade Organisation, Pascal Lamy, arrived in China on Sunday for a four-day visit aimed at helping to revive momentum in the Doha round of trade talks.
WTO Director General Lamy is to meet senior commerce, finance and agricultural officials, the official Xinhua news agency reported. While China is emerging as a global economic giant, it has belonged to the global trade body since only 2001 and assumed a low-key role in the contentious Doha negotiations.
"At present, the Doha global trade negotiations have entered a crucial stage, and under these circumstances, he hopes to discuss with Chinese officials how to achieve progress in the negotiations," Xinhua reported, citing an interview with Lamy.
The contentious talks, named after the city where they were launched in 2001, have been stuck on farm trade issues. This week top trade officials from the United States, European Union, Brazil and India are due to meet in Potsdam, Germany, seeking progress in the talks.
Lamy suspended negotiations in July 2006 after major trading powers again failed to agree on how far to cut farm subsidies and tariffs. The United States has proposed cutting its maximum WTO allowance for trade-distorting domestic subsidies by 53 percent to $22.5 billion. Many countries complain that actually would allow it to boost spending from current levels since the United States does not meet its maximum.
The United States has urged the EU and more advanced developing countries to make deeper cuts in their farm tariffs, which it says is vital to generating new trade flows and achieving the development goals of the round. Washington and Brussels have both pressed Beijing to become more involved in seeking a solution to the impasse.