China said Tuesday it will no longer seek new special treatment for developing countries in current and future World Trade Organization negotiations, signaling a possible effort to ease a longstanding friction point with the U.S. ahead of a planned summit.

Chinese Premier Li Qiang, attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York, announced the shift at a meeting on China's Global Development Initiative, according to state-run Xinhua News Agency.

The move drew praise from WTO Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who wrote on X that "this is a culmination of many years of hard work" and applauded China's leadership.

Still, Li framed the decision as coming from "a responsible major developing country," underscoring that Beijing continues to claim the status of a developing nation--a position that has long frustrated Washington.

While China's economy is the world's second largest after the U.S., its per capita income remains closer to that of countries such as Thailand and Mexico, with wealthy metropolises offset by vast poorer regions.

Li's remarks came just days after Chinese leader Xi Jinping and U.S. President Trump agreed in a phone call to meet in South Korea this fall. President Trump later said the two countries had approved a deal allowing Chinese-made short-video app TikTok to continue operating in the U.S. and that Xi would visit Washington next year following his own trip to China.

Analysts say the recent gestures point to easing trade tensions between the world's two largest economies. China's vow to forgo further special treatment could also inject momentum for long-stalled WTO reforms.

Developing-nation status is currently self-declared and grants benefits such as longer timelines for implementing agreements and higher allowable tariffs.

China's claim of such status has long been criticized by the U.S. government as a way to gain unfair advantages, with Washington arguing there could be no meaningful WTO reforms until large economies including China relinquish their claims to special status.

"The United States has never accepted China's claim to developing-country status, and virtually every current economic indicator belies China's claim," President Trump said in a 2019 memorandum on reforming developing-country status in WTO.

Write to Singapore Editors at singaporeeditors@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 24, 2025 00:05 ET (04:05 GMT)

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