Susan Schwab. Beijing and Washington yesterday called for the revival of the stalled Doha Round of global trade talks. The joint call was made by Minister of Commerce Bo Xilai and visiting US Trade Representative Susan Schwab, according to a statement released by the Ministry of Commerce. Bo said China is ready to push, along with other countries, for an early resumption of the World Trade Organization (WTO) talks. He said he "regrets the suspension of the Doha Round of talks," because setting up a just multilateral trade regime benefits a majority of WTO members. Schwab said the United States would make effort for the restart of the Doha talks, and called for more attention to be paid to market access and development issues, the Ministry of Commerce statement said. The Doha Round was suspended in late July after six major members Australia, Brazil, the European Union, India, Japan and the United States failed to reach a consensus on agricultural and industrial trade. The breakdown of the talks, which were seen as a once-in-a-generation chance to boost growth and ease poverty around the world, is a blow to both developing and developed economies. Bo wants developed countries to make more efforts to restart and get the talks back on track. Schwab said China, which she described as the largest beneficiary of the multilateral trade regime, should play a bigger role. Her spokesman, Sean Spice, said after the talks that "there was a general agreement that market access is an extremely important component" for both the United States and China. Schwab warned last week in the United States that "if we can't get a breakthrough by January, February, March ... it's going to be several years before we get a breakthrough." The protection of intellectual property rights, China's market-economy status and the application for US business visas also topped the meeting of the two trade officials.  By Jiang Wei (China Daily)

昨天，中美双方共同呼吁重启多哈贸易谈判。 商务部在一份声明中说，商务部部长薄熙来和来访的美方贸易代表苏珊·施瓦布共同呼吁恢复多哈谈判。 薄熙来说，中国愿和其他国家一起努力，推动多哈谈判尽快恢复。 薄熙来表示“对多哈谈判的中止感到遗憾”，因为建立一个公平的多边贸易体制能让世贸组织的大多数成员国获益。 施瓦布说美国愿为多哈谈判的恢复做出努力，并强调要关注市场准入和发展等问题。 由于澳大利亚、巴西、欧盟、印度、日本和美国六个世贸组织成员未能就农产品和工业品的贸易问题达成一致，多哈谈判于今年7月下旬被迫中止。 多哈谈判被视为促进全球经济发展和减少贫困的一个千载难逢的好机会，因此，谈判的破裂无论对于发展中国家还是发达国家都是致命的一击。 薄熙来表示希望发达国家能为重启和推进多哈谈判做出更大的努力。 施瓦布说，中国作为多边贸易体制的最大受益者，应该在多哈谈判中发挥更大的作用。 施瓦布的发言人肖恩·斯派思在谈判结束后说，对于美国和中国而言，“市场准入是一个极其重要的问题，这已成为共识”。 施瓦布上周在美警告说：“如果多哈谈判在今年没有取得任何突破性进展，恐怕就得等到几年之后了。” 此外，此次中美贸易会谈的主要议题还包括知识产权的保护、中国市场经济的地位以及美国商务签证的申请问题。