CHINA / SWITZERLAND – The government of China has pledged USD 600,000 (close to CHF 500,000) for 2025 to support the WTO’s Least-Developed Countries (LDCs) and Accessions Programme (also known as the China Programme). The contribution was confirmed at a signing ceremony on 3 June in Paris attended by WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and China’s Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao.
The China Programme — launched in July 2011 under the WTO-led Aid for Trade initiative — aims to enable LDCs to better integrate into the global economy by strengthening their participation in WTO activities and helping those not yet members join the Organization. The signing ceremony was held on the side of a meeting of trade ministers hosted by Australia on the sidelines of the annual Ministerial Council Meeting of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
The China Programme finances activities to support, among others:
- An internship programme at the WTO;
- China Round Tables on WTO accessions;
- Increasing participation of LDCs in WTO meetings;
- South-South dialogue on LDCs and development;
- Follow-up workshops to LDCs’ Trade Policy Reviews;
- LDCs Experience Sharing Programme.
The Programme has also contributed to financing the participation of LDC government officials in WTO ministerial conferences.
More information can be found here.
WTO director-general Okonjo-Iweala said:
“I warmly welcome the renewal of this programme, which stands as testimony to China’s commitment to facilitating the integration of LDCs into global trade. A substantial part of this programme goes to support LDCs and other economies in the process of acceding to the WTO, an important step in using trade to meet their economic and development objectives. China’s contribution in current challenging times is mostly welcome.”
Minister Wang said:
“In the past years, by continuously funding various activities of the China Programme, China has been taking every solid step to help developing members, especially the LDCs, better integrate into the multilateral trading system. Noticing the technical assistance resource constraints WTO is currently facing, China raises its contribution to the China Programme to USD 600,000, demonstrating its firm support to WTO capacity-building activities for developing members especially the LDCs. In the future, China is willing to continue making contributions, better operate the China Programme together with the Secretariat, and implement the Global Development Initiative (GDI) with practical actions.”
Each year, the WTO Secretariat and the government of China review the contents and consider the renewal of the Memorandum of Understanding on the China Programme.
Since 2008, China has contributed just around USD 11 million (approximately CHF 9.0 million) to assist developing economy members and observers, especially LDCs, in integrating more fully into the multilateral trade system.