November 15 marked the end of the marathon negotiations between China and the United States for China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Shi Guangsheng, China's minister of foreign trade and economic cooperation, and US Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky signed a bilateral agreement on China's accession to the WTO on behalf of their respective governments this afternoon, removing key barriers for China to join this largest global trade system.

Even though the stubborn negotiators today raised champagne glasses and exchanged toasts, few could forget the difficulties they encountered during scores of rounds of negotiations over the past 13 years, which sometimes seemed headed for a dead end.

On July 10, 1986, Chinese Ambassador to the United Nations organizations in Geneva Qian Jiadong issued an application to resume China's status as a signatory member of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), later transformed to be the WTO. Little did he know he had started what would become 13 years of negotiations.

After a dozen bilateral consultations between China and major signatory members between 1986 and 1989, China reached compromises with these countries on core issues for China's reentry into the GATT. A draft paper on China's accession was nearly ready for release.

However, the situation took a downward slide from 1989 to 1992, when the US and other Western powers imposed economic sanctions against China, one of which stressed blocking China out of the GATT. Bilateral consultations and multi-lateral negotiations were virtually deadlocked during the period.

Not until February of 1992 did China restart talks. The ensuing three and a half years were said to be a key period for deciding China's rights and obligations in the global trade system.

China in the same period scored marked economic growth and set the goals to establish a market economy and modern enterprise system. The prosperous economy should have provided the opportunity for China to reenter the GATT. Major signatory parties, nevertheless, decided to gradually increase their offers regardless of China's economic development level.

The negotiations sank into a vicious circle that turned out to be never-ending for China.

Starting from November 1995, China's GATT reentry negotiations were transformed into talks on its accession into the WTO. Even though China made major compromises, the final results were still colored with uncertainty due to the irrational requirements of the US and other European countries.

During Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji's trip to the US last April, China-US negotiations scored substantial progress. Even so, the impractical offer asked by the US side still impeded the inking of an agreement.

Before the start of the just-ended negotiations, Chinese President Jiang Zemin and US President Bill Clinton talked on the telephone on November 7, deciding to accelerate the pace of the negotiations so that a mutually-beneficial agreement could be reached.

The agenda for the negotiations continued past the originally scheduled two days because knotty problems over certain key issues could not be properly resolved. The talks ultimately lasted six successive days and nights.

Again, under the close attention paid by top leaders between the two countries and in line with the spirit of mutual understanding, mutual compromise and equal consultation, the two sides eventually reached an agreement that is satisfactory to both.

As the press release issued after the signing the bilateral agreement pointed out, the document is "not only an agreement of commercial importance, but also important for the development of the world economy." More importantly, both sides agreed the results are "win-win" for the two countries.

Local experts said the signing the agreement is of realistic and historic significance, conducive to China's accession to the WTO, and beneficial to the full growth of Sino-US economic and trade cooperation and the stability and development of Sino-US relations.

"It injected new momentum into the development and prosperity of the world economy," one pleased expert said.

Chinese President Jiang Zemin said that China's entry into the WTO is needed by the country for ensuring economic growth and driving reform and opening-up. Meanwhile, the WTO also needs China, Jiang said.

"Without the participation of China, a country with 1.2 billion people, the WTO is incomplete," he said, adding that China's absence in the WTO is also not beneficial to the growth of the world economy.

He again stressed that China can only enter the WTO as a developing country with balanced rights and obligations. "China will not accept conditions that exceed China's tolerance," he said.

So far, China has concluded its bilateral negotiations with 12 WTO members, including Japan and Australia. However, its bilateral negotiations with the European Union are still not settled. (Xinhua)