MNI: Former WTO Director Says Best Trade Option is Negotiation

--Pascal Lamy Urges Continued U.S./China Trade Negotiations

     BEIJING (MNI) - Former World Trade Organization Director-General Pascal

Lamy said Monday that although the U.S. has shown limited constraint, China

should continue to seek negotiations as the best way forward.

     Lamy,speaking at a forum held by Renmin University, said China should

further open its market as it promised, though the trade confrontation could be

in no small degree driven by the domestic political needs of the U.S.

     Lamy also predicted China may need greater discipline in reducing support

for state-owned companies which American companies have claimed are unfair. In

return, China, which is developing its outbound investment through programs such

as its One Belt One Road initiative, will seek a rules-based investment regime

from the U.S. government, he said.

     --POSSIBLE COUNTERMEASURES 

     Wang Wen, researcher at the Counsellors' Office of the State Council,

China's main governing department, told MNI on the sidelines of the discussion

that China could consider all possible countermeasures as trade sanctions

against the U.S.

     Wang, managing director of Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at the

university, also said a devaluation of the yuan or selling U.S. treasuries are

both possibilities. He also told MNI the WTO is increasingly marginalized by

major powers now, as trade conflicts are played out between countries instead of

going through the WTO. 

--MNI Beijing Bureau; +86 (10) 8532-5998; email: iris.ouyang@marketnews.com

--MNI Singapore Bureau; +65 8233 2326; email: Asia-Editor@marketnews.com

--MNI London Bureau; tel: +44 203-586-2225; email: les.commons@marketnews.com

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