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China's Trade Chief Says WTO Talks in Final Stages
China's Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Shi Guangsheng said on Thursday in Shanghai that talks with the EU and other members on China's entry to the WTO were in the final stages.
"Now China's bilateral talks on entering the World Trade Organisation have made progress and have entered the final stages," Shi told an Asia Society conference in Shanghai.
EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy is due in Beijing next week for a fourth round of talks this year on a deal that would pave the way for China's entry to the global trade group.
Shi did not specifically comment on the status of the talks with the EU, but he said the WTO would be incomplete without China.
"China needs the WTO and the WTO also needs China. If China does not enter the WTO, then it is not completely global," Shi said.
He said that on joining the WTO, China would further open sectors including telecommunications, banking, insurance, foreign trade, accounting and travel agencies.
The European Union's envoy to China, Endymion Wilkinson, said on Wednesday he was hopeful the coming round of negotiations with China would be the last, but both sides would have to make concessions.
Wilkinson said the agreement must take into account the EU's industrial and trading profile, and areas of focus included insurance, mobile telecoms and trading in some commodities currently traded by state trading monopolies.
The EU is the last major trading partner that China has yet to reach a deal with on its entry to the WTO.
China reached a landmark trade pact with the United States in November in which Beijing agreed to open a wide range of markets from agriculture to telecoms and finance.
In exchange, the US Congress must grant China permanent normal trade relations -- a status it now enjoys only after an annual congressional review. The House of Representatives is expected to vote on the trade status in the week of May 22.
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