China gives up developing-country treatment in bid to boost WTO in face of Trump tariffs

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BEIJING (AP) — China has said it would no longer seek the special treatment given to developing countries in World Trade Organization agreements — a change long demanded by the United States.

Commerce Ministry officials said Wednesday the move was an attempt to boost the global trading system at a time when it is under threat from tariff wars and protectionist moves by individual countries to restrict imports.

They did not mention the United States by name or President Donald Trump’s imposition of tariffs on many other countries this year, including China.

The U.S. has long argued China should give up the developing-country status because it is the world’s second-largest economy. The advantages of that designation at the WTO include lower requirements to open their markets to imports and longer transition periods to implement such market-opening steps.

The WTO provides a forum for global trade talks and enforces agreements but has become less effective, prompting calls for reform.

The head of the Geneva-based organization described the Chinese move as “major news key to WTO reform” and applauded and thanked the country’s leaders in a post on X.

“This is a culmination of many years of hard work,” wrote Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the WTO director-general.

Chinese Premier Li Qiang announced the change in a speech in New York on Tuesday to a China-organized development forum at the annual meeting of the U.N. General Assembly.

China is a middle-income country, and the Commerce Ministry officials emphasized that it remains part of the developing world.

Increasingly, though, it has become a source of loans and technical assistance to other countries seeking to build roads, railways, dams and other major projects, often undertaken by major Chinese state-owned companies.