Excluding China from trade talks 'inappropriate'

It is "very inappropriate" to exclude China from the ongoing three mega negotiations on regional trade arrangements, a senior Chinese official said on Wednesday.

Against the backdrop of the financial crisis, many developed countries have questioned and even discarded multilateralism, the base of economic globalization, said He Yafei, deputy director of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council.

He, former vice-foreign minister, made the remarks during talks with veteran editors of British newspaper The Times at its headquarters in London.

The three negotiations he was speaking about were the Trans-Pacific Partnership of 12 countries led by the United States; the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership between the US and European Union; and the Trade in Services Agreement between the EU and 20-odd economies of both advanced and developing countries, including the US.

Attempts to “marginalize” China and exclude it from mapping out new global economic rules will only further undermine multilateralism and the current international economic system, he said.

Calling both China and Britain a supporter of free trade, He said China actively promotes the Doha Round negotiations, and welcomes the trade package recently sealed at the World Trade Organization's ninth ministerial meeting in Bali, Indonesia.

He also called for the British newspaper to play a helpful role in strengthening the two peoples' mutual understanding, which fundamentally decides the development of the two countries' relations.