On 4 December 2013, Professor Ye Xingguo, SUIBE Vice President, wasinvited to attend the Ninth WTO Ministerial Conference held inBali, Indonesia.
Slated to be held from 3 to 6 December 2013, the Ninth WTOMinisterial Conference, the topmost decision-making body of theWTO, adopted at its closing ceremony on Saturday 7 December, a daylater than schedule, the “Bali Package”, the first-evermultilateral trade agreement in the 18 years since theestablishment of the WTO and a major historic breakthrough in the12-year-long deadlock of the Doha Development Round of tradenegotiations. The historic trade package was sealed after acompromise was struck on disputes for food security and after fourLatin American countries including Cuba agreed to the revisedlanguage in provisions barring discrimination in the form of tradeembargoes on goods in transit.
During the WTO ministerial meeting, Professor Zhang Lei, WTOChair-holder and Professor of SUIBE Joint Research Center forInternational Trade Governance and China’s Reform and Open-up, gavea keynote speech at the Forum on Trade and Trade Rules inSustainable Development sponsored by the UN Economic and SocialCommission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), providingrecommendations on trade policy conducive to inclusive growth andoutlining the latest developments in China’s new, more openeconomic system and the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone.
During the trade summit, Vice President Ye and Professor Zhang alsomet with Mr. Yi Xiaozhun, Deputy Director-General of the WTO.