Opinions
16:57, 11-Apr-2018
Ex-WTO Chief Lamy: If China wants to open its car market, it has to do two things
["china","north america"]
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By CGTN's World Insight
China will actively expand imports, significantly lower the import tariffs for vehicles and reduce import tariffs for some other products this year as it aims to open up its market further, said Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Boao Forum for Asia annual conference on Tuesday.
Foreign investors and leaders welcomed his message.
CGTN's Tian Wei caught up with former WTO director-general Pascal Lamy who shared his opinion of Xi Jinping's speech.
China has pledged to lower the tariffs to have cars been imported into the country, but at the same time, China is also a prominent manufacturer of vehicles, how can we see these two sides of the same issue, Lamy questioned?
“If China wants to open its car market, it has to do two things – one is to facilitate imports in reducing tariffs, and the other is to facilitate production in China by other than Chinese companies,” said Lamy.
He added that there is still quite a lot to do, because “if you are European companies trying to invest China, you will have to buy quite a large number of conditions, including choosing a local partner, and the amount of equity you will have is limited.”
“So there are things to be done both on the imports side and also the investment facilitation,” concluded by Lamy.
World Insight with Tian Wei is a 45-minute global affairs and debate show on CGTN. It airs weekdays at 10:15 p.m. BJT (1415GMT), with rebroadcasts at 4:15 a.m. BJT (2015GMT).