The head of the World Trade Organization on Friday urged China to change its growth model, arguing that its soaring trade surplus is ultimately unsustainable and risks triggering new trade barriers.
WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala told the Munich Security Conference that Beijing said it wanted to support the multilateral trading system “because it has benefited so much from it”.
However, “the export-led growth model that has driven China’s growth in the past 40 years cannot drive China’s growth in the next 40 years,” Okonjo-Iweala said.
“A trade surplus of $1.2 trillion is unsustainable. Because the rest of the world cannot absorb it,” she added.
“If China doesn’t take action, we’re going to see more obstacles.”
China’s trade surplus hit a record $1.2 trillion last year. Trade with the U.S. has fallen sharply, despite the resumption of a bitter trade war between the world’s two largest economies with President Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
Other trading partners filled the gap, with China’s exports overall growing by 5.5% in 2025, while imports in dollar terms remained unchanged.
China’s economy will grow 5% by 2025, one of the slowest growth rates in decades, Beijing said on Monday, as the world’s second-largest economy grapples with persistently sluggish consumer spending and a debt crisis in the real estate sector.
In October, Trump reached a truce with Chinese President Xi Jinping. But in January, he announced he would impose tariffs on countries that trade with Iran. China, which is at the forefront of these countries, has warned that it will defend its interests.
Other major markets for Chinese products, such as the European Union, are alarmed by the imbalance in the trade balance with China.
Europeans, concerned that their markets will become an outlet for China’s overproduction, have urged China to stimulate domestic consumption that has been sluggish for years.
The WTO will hold its main biennial ministerial meeting in Cameroon in late March.
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