On October 30, 2021 local time,  State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with World Trade Organization  (WTO) Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala in Rome.

Wang Yi congratulated Iweala on  becoming the first African Director-General of the WTO, saying that this marks  the strengthening of the strength of developing countries on the international  stage, and China will fully support the Director-General in performing her  duties.

Wang Yi said that President Xi  Jinping delivered an important speech at the First Session of the 16th Group of  20 (G20) Leaders' Summit today, emphasizing that the multilateral trading system  with the WTO at its core should be maintained and the 12th WTO Ministerial  Conference should be promoted to achieve positive results. This fully  demonstrates that China attaches great importance to the role of the WTO. This  year marks the 20th anniversary of China's accession to the WTO. As a staunch  defender of the multilateral trading system, China stands ready to work with  other parties to uphold the authority and effectiveness of the WTO, advance the  liberalization and facilitation of global trade and investment, and consolidate  the foundation of global trade.

Iweala said, I listened to the  important speech of President Xi Jinping on the scene and was greatly  encouraged. She sincerely congratulates China on the 20th anniversary of China's  accession to the WTO. Noting China's accession to the WTO is of great  significance, the WTO attaches great importance to China's important influence  and leading role, and is willing to strengthen communication and coordination  with China, and in particular, continue to receive China's support in hosting  the 12th Ministerial Conference.

When talking about "special and  differential treatment", Wang Yi said China is the largest developing country in  the world, because our own unbalanced and inadequate development is still a  prominent problem and the development task is still arduous. Politically, China  will always be a member of the group of developing countries and will firmly  defend the common interests of developing countries. At the same time, China has  never shied away from its due international responsibilities. China has  undertaken obligations far beyond its WTO accession commitments, both in terms  of reducing overall tariff levels and in actual cases of "special and  differential treatment". In the past, at present or in the future, China has  never and will never compete with other developing countries for resources. We  will, on the basis of our overall positioning as a developing country, continue  to assume responsibilities and obligations commensurate with our level of  development and make greater contributions to common development.