China's WTO Accession Reaches Final Stage

China's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) has reached the final stage, said the chairman of the Working Party on China in Geneva Tuesday.

China's accession is "on a good track" and a lot of progress has been made since the eighth session in July 1998, said Chairman Pierre Girard in his summping-up statement.

On bilateral ties, Swiss Trade Ambassador Girard said, out of the 37 WTO members expressing an interest in negotiating market access in goods and services, China has concluded accords with 27.

They include Hungary, New Zealand, South Korea, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Turkey, Singapore, Pakistan, Indonesia, Japan, Australia ,Chile, the United States, Canada, Venezuela, Cuba, Brazil, Sri Lanka, Uruguay, Peru, Iceland, Norway, the Philippines, India, Colombia, Argentina, and Thailand.

Of 10 members yet to conclude their bilateral accords with China, several are close to technical completion. "This marks very major progress and shows that we are now entering the final phase of our work," said Girard.

The 10 members are the European Union, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, the Kyrgyz Republic, Latvia, Malaysia, Mexico, Poland, and Switzerland.

"Moving to the multilateral aspect of our work, I would first like to thank the Chinese delegation, on behalf of the Working Party, for submitting valuable new inputs," said Girard. "Here I am referring to, first, the updated Memorandum on China's Foreign Trade Regime and, second, to a compilation of some 177 Chinese laws and regulations. These will constitute important inputs for our future work."

Girard expected the next session, temporarily scheduled in May, will be very important. He urged the remaining WTO members to finalize their bilateral talks with China as soon as possible.

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