China has said it is giving up its developing-country status that allows for special treatment by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) during trade agreements.
Speaking at a forum in New York on Tuesday at the annual meeting of the UN General Assembly, Chinese Premier Li Qiang announced the change and said it was 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.
While the change has been long demanded by the United States, China did not mention the United States by name or President Donald Trump's imposition of tariffs on many other countries this year, including China.
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The advantages of the developing-country designation at the WTO include lower requirements for developing countries to open their markets to imports and longer transition periods to implement such market-opening steps.
The US has long argued China should give up the developing-country status because it is the world's second-largest economy, although China’s Commerce Ministry officials emphasized it is a middle-income country that remains a part of the developing world.
The head of the Geneva-based organisation 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.
The WTO provides a forum for global trade talks and enforces agreements but has become less effective, prompting calls for reform.
China, meanwhile, 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.
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