On December 3, China and a group of four major cotton producing African countries (C4) of Benin, Mali, Chad and Burkina Faso, jointly issued Press Communiqué of Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China and C4 Board of Trade on Cooperation in Cotton Industry under the WTO Framework in Bali, Indonesia, and also held a press conference. Gao Hucheng, Minister of Commerce of PRC, representatives of Benin, Mali, Chad and Burkina Faso, and Roberto Azevedo, Secretary-General of WTO were present at the press conference.

Gao Hucheng said at the press conference that, since the initiation of the Doha Round, China has always stressed that the negotiation should take problems concerned by developing members, especially the most underdeveloped members as a priority.Therefore, China firmly supports the request of C4, and actively promotes the solution to the cotton issue.

Gao Hucheng pointed out that, since the Press Communiqué on Cooperation in Cotton Industry under the WTO Framework was jointly issued by the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China and C4 on December 14, 2011, China dispatched expert groups to Africa under economic and technical assistance of USD20 million by China, and jointly formulated a three-year cooperation plan with C4. By way of a cotton technology promotion project, provision of agricultural inputs, personnel training and technology cooperation, China helped C4 cultivate and popularize good cotton seeds, transfer technology and experience, enhance planting capability, and process & trade of cotton, which have gained favorable effect in terms of promoting the development of the cotton industry in C4.

Gao Hucheng expressed that China is willing to further strengthen assistance and expand cooperation with C4. Together with C4, China will explore new methods of assistance, and mainly take measures from six aspects to further deepen cooperation. The first is providing assistance or aid in the construction of infrastructure; the second is providing productive materials; the third is strengthening training; the fourth is strengthening science research cooperation; the fifth is promoting trade power, and the sixth is promoting enterprise cooperation. Through these measures, we hope that the capacity of cotton production, processing, storage and transportation, and trade of C4 will be further promoted, making our cotton cooperation become a new highlight of South-South Cooperation.

Gao Hucheng also expressed China's thanks to Mr Azevedo and the secretariat for their unceasing efforts in promoting the solving of problems that the most underdeveloped countries are concerned about, and will support the work of the Secretary-General and the secretariat in these fields as always. China has made the appeal that member countries should make joint efforts to as early as possible solve problems that the most underdeveloped countries are concerned about, driving the Doha Round to reach the package agreement, and realizing development goals at an early date.

Yu Jianhua, the Chinese permanent representative and ambassador to the World Trade Organization was present at the press conference.