China and the European Union (EU) made progress January 26 on China's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), according to a statement put out by China's Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation.

The statement said, "The European Commission and the Chinese government ended a two and a half days negotiating session on the terms of China's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) on January 26."

The Chinese team was led by Long Yongtu, Vice-Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, the Commission's chief negotiator was Mr Hans-Friedrich Beseler, Director-General for Trade.

It said, "Discussions covered outstanding issues on market access in the fields of industrial goods, such as tariffs and the phasing out of quotas, and agricultural goods (tariffs and trariffs-rate quotas).

"A full day was also devoted to the services sector, including negotiations on such key sectors as telecommunications, financial services (banking, insurance and securities), brokerage, distribution, tourism and professional services (lawyers and accountants).

"They also covered certain cross-sectoral issues, including trade-related investment measures, state trading and national treatment issues."

The statement added, "Negotiations were held in a positive and constructive atmosphere and substantive progress was made through joint efforts on both sides. Nevertheless, important issues remain to be resolved. To this end, the two sides agreed that another round of technical negotiations will be held in Beijing in the second half of February."

"Depending on further progress in those negotiations, Commissioner Lamy stands ready to go to Beijing to meet with Minister Shi with a view to finalizing a EU/China deal on China's accession to the WTO as soon as possible," it said.