China to be flexible at Doha talks: state media

TRADE WARS

Australia PM urges greater say for China in IMF
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) must give China a greater say if it wants to accurately reflect global economic reality in the 21st century, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said Sunday. Rudd, a Mandarin-speaking Sinophile, said he would raise the issue at the next month's G20 meeting in London and at his first meeting with US President Barack Obama this week in Washington. He said that if China was expected to play a major part in IMF efforts to revive the global economy, it deserved a vote that reflected its status. "Everyone is expecting China to put its money on the table, that's fine," Rudd told Channel Nine television. "But you know in the IMF, China's voting rights are currently the same as those of Belgium and the Netherlands. "Now let's just get up with the realities of the 21st century." Rudd said Australia would take a raft of proposals to the G20 meeting aimed at increasing the organisation's funding and making it more flexible. He said a reformed IMF would have greater scope to prevent "second wave" crises arising from the global recession. "It could occur if you've got a huge implosion in the economy say in Central and Eastern Europe or elsewhere in the developing world, which then washes back into the world's major banks again, and that affects all of us, quite apart from those countries themselves," he said. "So what do you do about it? The International Monetary Fund ... needs to have more resources than it's currently got, more flexibility than it's currently got, to intervene early with those emerging crises." The IMF was formed in 1944 to oversee the international monetary system, including exchange rates, and provide temporary financing to struggling countries.

by Staff Writers
Beijing (AFP) March 23, 2009
China will be flexible on issues at the Doha Round of global trade talks in order to help negotiations that have been stalled for years, state media said Monday.

"China will show flexibility on issues (such as agriculture) to facilitate the completion of the multilateral world trade system," Commerce Minister Chen Deming said, according to the China Daily.

He added that China was prepared to further open up its service sectors, after the Doha Round of talks is completed, the report said.

Speaking at a forum held here on Sunday, Chen urged the United States to build on agreements reached previously and move the talks forward.

"The ball is in the United States' court, rather than in developing countries," he said. "There are only a few controversial issues remaining."

The Doha Round of World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations started in 2001 and has been stalled over efforts to bring down tariffs and other trade barriers.

It failed to secure a breakthrough last year due to a deadlock between India and the United States over how poor nations could hike duties to shelter farmers from a flood of imports.

Members of the WTO including the United States and the European Union have recently pledged support for the Doha Round, with world trade expected to drop this year for the first time since 1982.

WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy has said a meeting to conclude the Doha Round could be held before August, once the new US administration establishes its trade policies and India holds general elections.

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TRADE WARS

Rio, Chinalco promote tie-up to Australian government

Sydney (AFP) May 2, 2009
Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto and its Chinese state-owned suitor, Chinalco, have promoted their 19.5 billion US dollar tie-up to the Australian government as beneficial for both nations.

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