China push ahead on entry bid, eye November for formal say-so

(07/05/2001) (Agencies)

Deputy Foreign Trade Minister Long Yongtu talks at a press conference at the World Trade Organization (WTO) headquarters in Geneva July 4, 2001, during formal talks on China's accession to WTO. [Reuters]

China and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) have made significant progress towards wrapping up Beijing's 15-year quest for membership, and now aim to pull out the stops so WTO ministers can formally approve Beijing's entry at a November conference in Qatar.

Pierre-Louis Girard, who chaired a week-long meeting of the WTO working party on China's accession ending in Geneva Wednesday, said they had reached "substantial and positive" agreements on a large number of outstanding issues.

"As a result of this development, I think we can with some confidence envisage a wrapping up of this process ... in what I hope to be a very near future," the Swiss diplomat told a news briefing.

Two areas of disagreement remain. They include the question of insurance which has prompted a US-EU argument over the future level of Chinese ownership in insurance company branches already in China and new entrants to the market.

The other area needing more time for agreement is tariff-rate quotas, Girard said.

China's main negotiator Long Yongtu, told WTO members at Wednesday's working party meeting that full consensus had been reached on major remaining issues.

"We have completed the substantial negotiations at this session, which will become a turning point in the long process of China's WTO accession," Long said.

WTO Director-General Mike Moore said: "We are now very close, but we are not there yet.

"I urge governments to make every effort to conclude these negotiations as quickly as possible," he said in a written statement.

China has been bidding for the past 15 years to join the 141-member global trade body, and the process took a leap forward last month when Beijing secured bilateral deals ironing out stumbling blocks with the European Union and United States.

Listing areas where Chinese and WTO negotiators had concluded texts, Girard also mentioned that agreement had been reached at the last moment on the subject of agriculture.

A number of developing countries had been worried about the implications for future negotiations of a China-US deal on the question of farm subsidies.

China settled in the June 9 deal to be allowed to subsidise up to 8.5 percent of the total value of farm production, although it had originally asked for 10 percent.

EU negotiator Carl Falkenberg also told reporters they were "not yet through" but said good progress had been made on outstanding substantive issues.

"We hope it will lead us to have an opportunity to take the formal decision about China's accession at the ministerial meeting at Doha," he told reporters.

China has also yet to conclude a bilateral deal with Mexico, but Long said he was hopeful the impasse which focuses on Mexican concerns that Chinese products will flood its market, could be overcome.

"Mexico is very actively engaged with us. I've just received a request by the Mexican ambassador to see me tomorrow morning, and deliver a letter from the government," Long told reporters.

"I am expecting to have some constructive talks with them," he added.

Another meeting of the working party has already been scheduled to begin on July 16 and Long said he would stay in Geneva to prepare for it.

Moore urged the governments to use the time before the meeting to resolve remaining differences and agree the documents.

After WTO ministers have formally approved the text outlining the terms and conditions of China's accession, the documents must then be ratified by China and only 30 days later can Beijing become a fully-fledged WTO member.