Mr. Chairman

Director de la Mora,

China aligns itself with the statements made by the representative of Peru on behalf of the Group of 77 and China, and by the representative of Malaysia on behalf of the Asia-Pacific Group. I would like to thank Director de la Mora for his introduction and express my gratitude to the distinguished guests and colleagues for their insightful remarks. I would like to take this opportunity to further elaborate on China's position: Trade is a powerful engine for economic growth and poverty reduction, while the rules-based multilateral trading system is a crucial safeguard for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. A free, open, stable, and predictable international economic and trade environment is of paramount importance for developing countries to achieve economic growth.

Currently, the United States’ excessive use of tariffs has triggered global trade tensions and significant uncertainty, severely impacting the economic growth expectations of all countries, particularly developing ones. Secretary-General Grynspan recently pointed out that tariffs would weaken international investments and trade flows, further exacerbating the uncertainties facing an already fragile global economic environment with developing countries bearing the heaviest burden.

The United States' practice of abusing tariffs violates basic economic laws and market principles, disregards the balance achieved through multilateral trade negotiations, ignores the fact that the U.S. has long profited immensely from international trade, and employs tariffs as a tool for exerting maximum pressure and pursuing selfish gains. It is a typical act of unilateralism, protectionism, and economic bullying, which will inflict enormous negative influence on the rules-based multilateral trading system and the economic and social development and modernization processes of developing countries. It will inevitably undermine the arduous efforts of all parties to promote the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. 

Dear colleagues, 

History has repeatedly proven that there are no winners in a tariff war, protectionism leads to nowhere, and openness and cooperation are the right path forward. China agrees with Madam Ganzalez's call for “don’t close your market”. In addressing the current escalating trade tensions and unilateralism, protectionism, and economic bullying, the solidarity of the international community, especially developing countries, are crucial. No matter how the international landscape may change, China's door of opening up to the outside world will only open wider. China will expand its opening-up, open commodity, services, capital, and labor markets wider in an orderly manner and unilaterally opening our doors wider to the world's least developed countries. Recently, China officially announced that it will introduce opening-up measures in 155 areas across 12 industries, including technology, finance, culture, telecommunications, and education. We will share development opportunities with all countries in the world, achieve mutual benefit and win-win results, and help developing countries participate in and benefit from the multilateral trading system more equally and fully. We will continue to strengthen trade assistance and capacity-building support to the least developed countries, narrow the development gap, ensure the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development are achieved as planned, and add more certainty and stability to global development. 

Dear colleagues, 

As President Xi Jinping pointed out in his video address at the UNCTAD's 60th anniversary, China has always been a member of the Global South and will always belong to the developing community. China stands ready to work with all parties to uphold true multilateralism, maintain the stability of global industrial and supply chains, safeguard an open and cooperative international environment, and promote the development of economic globalization in the right direction.