China Steps into WTO Leadership Role
By Reuters | 23 Sep, 2025

By renouncing Special and Differential Treatment (SDT) status China emerges as the new global trade leader, filling the vacuum left by US withdrawal from that role when it imposed unilateral tariffs in violation of WTO rules.

A Chinese flag flutters at the Chinese Ministry of Commerce building in Beijing, China June 4, 2025. REUTERS/Florence Lo/ File Photo

China announced on Tuesday it will forego asking for the benefits it gains from its developing country status at the World Trade Organization, state-run news agency Xinhua and the Director-General of the WTO stated. 

Xinhua reported that China's Premier Li Qiang announced his country will no longer seek access to Special and Differential Treatment in current and new WTO agreements during a meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.

"This is a culmination of many years of hard work and I want to applaud China's leadership on this issue," WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said in a statement posted on X. 

Previously, Washington had argued there could be no meaningful WTO reform until China and other major economies relinquish the SDT granted to developing countries, which the U.S. says give them an unfair advantage.

Some major economies, including China and Saudi Arabia, self-identify as developing countries, granting them access to SDT benefits such as setting higher tariffs and using subsidies.

The U.S. opposes countries picking and choosing SDT benefits, and had wanted China to completely renounce them. 

China's announcement comes after months of trade tension between the world's two largest economies over sweeping tariffs imposed by the U.S. and retaliatory measures by China.

China previously told Reuters its developing country status was non-negotiable, but that it was open to discussing SDT, subsidies and industrial policy as part of broader discussions on WTO reform, ahead of a 2026 ministerial meeting in Cameroon.

(Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin; Editing by David Gregorio)