On the afternoon of 5 November 2024, the Parallel Session on "The WTO at 30 and China: History and Evolution" of the Seventh Hongqiao International Economic Forum was successfully held in Shanghai, China. This Session was attended in person and online by Vice Minister of Commerce of China Li Fei, Minister for Trade of New Zealand Todd McClay, Minister of Commerce, Industry, and Tourism of Colombia Luis Carlos Reyes Hernández, Minister of State for Foreign Trade of United Arab Emirates Thani Bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, Minister of Trade of Cameroon Mbarga Atangana Luc Magloire, Deputy Secretary-General of UNCTAD Pedro Manuel Moreno, Deputy Director-General of WTO Johanna Hill, and President of US-China Business Council Craig Allen.

Vice Minister Li Fei pointed out that, the multilateral trading system with WTO at its core, has provided an open, stable and predictable institutional environment for international trade, significantly promoting the development of global trade and investment. Since its accession to the WTO in 2001, China has actively integrated into economic globalization, becoming a major trading partner for more than 140 countries and regions. This has accelerated China's own development and benefited the whole world as well. China will comprehensively implement the spirit of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, play a more active and constructive role in the WTO, support the central role of development agenda in the WTO work and fully engage in the WTO reform. China will also provide more global public goods and promote the development of a more open, inclusive, balanced, and mutually beneficial global economic governance system.

During the keynote speech session, international guests fully acknowledged the positive role of the WTO in promoting global trade growth, economic development, and job creation in the past three decades. They supported necessary reform to improve the functioning of the WTO, further liberalizing and facilitating global trade and investment, and better addressing global challenges such as climate change, technological revolutions and development divide. The guests called for achieving positive outcomes at the 14th WTO Ministerial Conference to be held in Cameroon in 2026, building on the success of the past two WTO ministerial conferences. They also highlighted that, accession to the WTO has significantly strengthened China's economic and trade ties with other countries. China International Import Expo has provided a vast Chinese market for the export of other countries' products and created more development opportunities worldwide. As a core member of the WTO, China has made important contributions to negotiations on issues such as investment facilitation, services domestic regulation and fisheries subsidies. Looking forward, China should play a greater role in maintaining the stability of global industrial and supply chains and narrowing the North-South development gap.

During the panel discussion session, in-depth discussions were held on key topics such as experiences and lessons from the evolution of WTO over the past 30 years, priority areas for WTO reform, and China's steady expansion of institutional opening up. The panelists included Professor of the University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Former Deputy Secretary-General of the State Council Jiang Xiaojuan, Former Vice Minister of Commerce of China Yi Xiaozhun, IMF Senior resident representative in China Steven Barnett, President of Liaoning University Yu Miaojie, President of Shanghai University of International Business and Economics Wang Rongming, Vice President of the European Union Chamber Commerce in China Carlo D’Andrea, Global Vice President of SAP Pei Jinlin, President of Zhejiang China Commodities City Group Company Wang Dong and Chief Executive of European Policy Centre Fabian Zuleeg. The panelists noted that, with China's positive contribution, global trade in goods and services has grown from $6 trillion in 1995 to $30 trillion in 2023. Fifty-five developing economies, including China, have integrated themselves into the multilateral trading system, participating in and benefiting from economic globalization. The panelists warned that, if the WTO were unable to fully function, the world could to a large extent revert to the era of "jungle law", where countries would engage in zero-sum games under a fragmented global order. As the WTO is currently facing unprecedented challenges, all parties should undertake necessary WTO reform to revitalize the multilateral trading system, which serves the common interests of all countries. The panelists praised China as a staunch supporter and key contributor to the multilateral trading system, emphasizing that China's contributions are crucial to addressing global challenges. They expressed hopes that China would continue to deepen its reforms in areas such as the access and regulation of foreign investments, intellectual property protection, state-owned enterprises and industrial subsidies, further expanding institutional opening up to the outside world. China was encouraged to assume more responsibilities as a major WTO player and actively participate in global economic governance reform.

The WTO is a key pillar of multilateralism and an crucial component of global economic governance system. WTO was established by the Marrakesh Agreement concluded at the end of the Uruguay Round in 1994, with its membership of 166 members and the coverage of 98% of global trade. China joined the WTO in December 2001, becoming its 143rd member. This parallel session was hosted by the Ministry of Commerce of China and organized by Shanghai University of International Business and Economics. About 300 people were present at the session, including diplomats stationed in China, government officials, experts, scholars, and business representatives from various countries.