Former WTO head: EU should stop lecturing China

Former World Trade Organisation director general Pascal Lamy said at an international seminar on April 1 that the European Union "should stop lecturing" China and others on the need to reform their internal systems.

Lamy, also a former EU trade commissioner, was one of the keynote speakers at the two-day conference in Bruges, Belgium, on "China's reform and its impact on the EU and the World", organized by the new EU China Research Centre of the College of Europe and other partners, including China Daily and Huawei.

He told the participants: "Yes, China needs to reform its social and economic systems but this is also a question facing the EU as well.

And he also said: "We in Europe are rather good at lecturing others on how they should reform this and that but there are also lots of things Europe needs to be doing too to restore its standing in the world."

He urged Beijing to play a "more proactive" role in international governance, saying:"The road to EU integration has been very rocky with some bumpy years and more to come in the next few years. Rather than being lectured at by the EU on its reforms, I would suggest that China should think the other way round in terms of how the EU and Europe itself might reform."

The conference focused on the economic and strategic reforms unveiled at the Third Plenary at the end of last year by Chinese President Xi Jinping, who was also in Bruges earlier on Monday to officially open the EU China Research Centre.

Xi gave a speech at the College of Europe near the end of his four-nation tour of Europe - with stops in France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany - and touched on the reform package.

Lamy cautioned against reform "just for the sake of reform" but said the Chinese measures would "impact" not just China but also the rest of the world, and he reminded the audience of the "tough" negotiations he led which had resulted in China joining the WTO.

"I told my Chinese counterparts then that, in order to grow, China needed to reform, and to do this it needed political energy. With this new wave of reforms I am reminded of that now because it is as true today as it was back then."

The tripartite reforms Xi unveiled in November cover the market, government and companies - with the goal of reducing the government's role in the economy.