China's WTO accession benefits China, global growth -- IMF official

WASHINGTON, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) -- China's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) has benefited itself a lot, and also contributed to global economic growth during the past two decades, an International Monetary Fund (IMF) official has said.

Calling China's WTO accession a "blessing" to the country, Changyong Rhee, director of the IMF's Asia and Pacific Department, told Xinhua in a recent virtual interview that he has seen a "huge difference" in China after it became a WTO member and opened its market to the world.

China, South Korea and some other Asian countries are great examples of growing economies through trade, which has also benefited the consumers of many advanced economies, Rhee noted.

"I think we have to really advocate and advertise the importance of trade to the world," Rhee said, adding that many low-income countries in Latin America, Africa and even Asia can follow this practice.

The IMF official noted that free trade definitely improves overall growth and social welfare, but "not everybody is winning." Some people suffer from trade and some governments were not making many policy efforts to "compensate and protect them," he added.

That is why there is a backlash for globalization and trade, he said. "But I think we have to educate people and we have to emphasize the scientific evidence that trade is still a very important growth force."

According to a statement recently released by an IMF staff team after completing the annual Article IV review of the Chinese economy, China's recovery is "well advanced," while macroeconomic policies need to be supportive to secure "high-quality" growth.

For this, Rhee highlighted two key points -- green growth and economic rebalancing.

The IMF official said he is happy with China's commitment to strive to peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060, calling it a great goal.

He also welcomed the United States and China's joint pledge to enhance climate action at the 26th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

China's fiscal consolidation last year was quite significant, as part of the policy to accelerate the de-leveraging process, he noted.

"We believe China has a lot of tools and public spaces," but how China uses those tools will be very important for balancing the efforts to support economic growth and deleverage in the medium term, the IMF official said.