The following is excerpted from a 29 May 2012 speech by Pascal Lamy of the World Trade Organization.
Director-General Lamy opened the Beijing 2012 Round Table on WTO Accession Best Practices for Least Developed Countries. This is what he said:
On behalf of the WTO Membership, let me pay tribute to the Government of China for its leadership on WTO accessions, particularly on the accession of the Least Developed Countries. I pay particular tribute to the Ministry of Commerce of China, and to Minister Chen himself, for their work with me and Secretariat Staff, to initiate, drive and establish the “China’s LDCs’ and Accessions Programme”. The MOU has set the foundation for the WTO’s engagement with China to support WTO accessions in general and LDCs’ accessions in particular. Implementation of the “Programme” is also expanding the framework and parameters for China’s broader support for several other areas of WTO technical assistance, capacity building and cooperation writ large.
This speech is available in its entirety at:
http://www.wto.org/english/news_e/sppl_e/sppl231_e.htm