Editor's Note: The GATT centered multilateral trading system established after World War II has always been a "club for the wealthy.". Developing countries' participation in the multilateral trading system often has limited capacity and a shortage of talent. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development has implemented the "Technical Cooperation Assistance Programme for Multilateral Trade Negotiations" for many years to provide technical assistance to developing countries. China is no exception. Thirty five years ago, China proposed to restore its seat in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. Since then, until the establishment of the WTO, China has benefited greatly from this assistance program. On the occasion of commemorating the 20th anniversary of China's accession to the WTO, Tang Xiaobing, a consultant to Gaopeng Law Firm, wrote this memorial article as the specific executor of the plan that year.

From above: Gao Peng's Viewpoint | The invaluable support and assistance of United Nations agencies for China's "WTO accession" negotiations (Part 1).

During the execution of the project:

1. Fifteen seminars/forums/workshops/training courses have been held in Beijing, Kunming, Fuzhou, Hangzhou, Shanghai, and Haikou. Nearly 1500 government officials (including some senior officials), policymakers, trade negotiators, legal practitioners, business representatives, and scholars participated in these activities. Through these activities, government officials, business managers, economic operators, legal practitioners, scholars, and the public have improved their understanding and understanding of multilateral trade rules and disciplines, and greatly improved their inter ministerial coordination capacity.

2. Organized domestic and foreign experts and international consultants, as well as experts from international organizations, to compile over 40 research reports and research analysis papers covering areas and topics that have significant impact on China's economy and trade, including automobiles, textiles, agriculture, subsidies, safeguard measures, tariffs, non-tariff measures, national treatment, government procurement, trade-related investment measures, trade-related intellectual property rights, trade and environment Satellite launch services, financial services, insurance services, tourism, audio-visual services, value-added telecommunications services, natural person mobility, and so on.

3. Organize 10 international experts or expert groups to visit Beijing to provide consultation to relevant departments on technical issues in the fields of tariff negotiations, non-tariff measures, safeguard measures, service negotiations, and compliance with WTO rules and disciplines.

4. Organized a number of Chinese trade officials to receive short-term training in foreign law firms and universities, participate in training courses and attend seminars.

5. Organize domestic and foreign experts to compile textbooks on the multilateral trading system and multilateral trade negotiations.

6. Organized Chinese trade officials and researchers to conduct three inspection visits to relevant countries on agricultural trade, state-owned trade, and tariff quota management, which played an important role in promoting the process of WTO accession negotiations.

7. The organization published a book prepared by experts from international organizations and translated by domestic researchers: Trade Barriers China Faces.

8. Organized the publication of monographs of papers prepared by domestic experts; The challenges of trade liberalization - risks and countermeasures faced by textiles, agriculture, financial services, and automobiles.

9. The organization has developed tariff negotiation software programs to support WTO accession negotiations; And computerized databases for trade in services, as well as providing continuous upgrades to these software programs.

10. Helped establish a trade policy reference room to strengthen trade policy analysis and research capabilities.

11. Provide necessary office automation facilities, such as computer software; Duplicators and others have accelerated the processing capacity of information and data required for trade negotiations.

The New Zealand government has also set up parallel projects for this project: it has organized two research missions to New Zealand for several senior Chinese trade officials from the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation and other government agencies to investigate and study issues related to New Zealand's trade policies and trade negotiations.

The main contributions of this project to China's accession negotiations are as follows: effectively assisting China in building the necessary human resources capacity related to trade policy formulation and trade negotiations; Strengthen negotiation capacity building and enhance the ability to collect, analyze, and process trade policy information. Strengthen awareness of the decision-making capacity and the need for coordination among ministries and other government departments. Enhance public understanding and understanding of multilateral trade rules and disciplines, and enhance the research capacity of research institutions and academia.

The three parties of the project, namely, the sponsor, the United Nations Development Programme; Beneficiary: International Department of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation; Implementing Party, United Nations Trade Conference. At the tripartite review meeting at the final conclusion of the project, it was unanimously agreed that the implementation of the project was "satisfactory".

As early as February 22, 1994, Mr. Arthur Holcombe, the representative of the United Nations Development Programme in China, recognized the role of UNCTAD in the project:

"UNCTAD's most important technical cooperation project in China may be CPR/91/543, which is used to support China's eventual re accession to GATT. UNDP's funding is approximately $2 million. UNCTAD played a very important role in the preparation and implementation of the project. UNCTAD UNCTAD staff demonstrated excellent technical skills and were able to invest more staff time and visits to China than other United Nations agencies to support the project." The participation of UNCTAD staff in Chinese (Chinese nationality) has further enhanced effective support for the project. In particular, UNDP relies on UNCTAD to develop projects rather than using the usual external consultants, and provides strong technical oversight of projects. "The Chinese government agrees to positively evaluate the role of UNCTAD and agrees to have the project implemented by UNCTAD, which is one of the few non state executed projects in China."

On January 28, 2002, Vice Minister Long Yongtu wrote in a letter to Secretary General Rubens Ricupero of the United Nations Development and Trade Organization:

Due to our limited capabilities and experience, the complex negotiation of China's accession to the WTO is a huge challenge. As a knowledge-based and development oriented organization, UNCTAD's technical assistance and support programmes have always been considered neutral (unbiased) and objective by us. Given your extensive and in-depth knowledge and rich experience in international commercial diplomacy at the ambassadorial and ministerial levels, your suggestions and assessments have always been of great value to our leaders and myself in making these important decisions.

We attach great importance to the institutional recommendations of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in multilateral trade negotiations, which are a wealth to many developing members of the WTO, including acceding countries such as China. Under your wise leadership and guidance, over the years, we have benefited greatly from the United Nations Trade and Development expert team. In particular, Mr. Gibbs and Mr. Tang Xiaobing have provided us with a lot of professional support and technical assistance on many substantive issues and technical details involved in our WTO accession negotiations.

All this valuable support has been achieved through the technical assistance provided to our Government within the scope of the UNCTAD/UNDP CPR/91/543 project coordinated and managed by Mr. Tang Xiaobing. The project has trained a large number of trade officials, trade negotiators, trade policy makers, researchers, and business representatives for us, some of whom have become senior officials and diplomats in our department. The project has also prepared many valuable research reports and technical analysis papers on key areas and issues involved in the accession negotiations. Therefore, we have established certain capabilities in multilateral trade negotiations.