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Acceleration of China's WTO Accession Urged
The chairman of the Working Party on the Accession of China to the World Trade Organization (WTO) has called on members to accelerate the process.
Speaking at the formal meeting of the working party's 14th session in Geneva Friday, Chairman Paul Henri Ravier said that the December session had been "a good meeting because it has succeeded in maintaining and building upon the momentum" generated at the 13th session in November.
"But this is not the moment to rest, but rather the one to accelerate," said Ravier, who is also WTO deputy director-general. "Political decisions are still needed in key capitals in important outstanding areas, and we must have them for textual breakthroughs next time."
"It is only through these new political directions that we can hope to wrap up the core package of outstanding issues and then deal smoothly with the secondary ones," he stressed.
In his statement, Ravier mentioned the following specific textual breakthroughs achieved at the 14th session:
-- Circulation of a detailed text on Non-Tariff Measures for inclusion in the next revision of the draft Working Party Report;
-- Circulation of a text for the draft report on services licensing and transparency which have been the subject of bilateral, plurilateral and multilateral examination for many years;
-- Circulation of a text concerning TRIPS (trade-related intellectual property issues) for incorporation in the next revision of the draft report;
-- Circulation of a text dealing with Industrial Policy including subsidies.
Ravier said that much more work still needed to be done before textual problems on TBT (technical barriers of trade), Trading Rights, Agriculture, and Product Specific Safeguards/Textiles can be solved.
"In each of these areas, the picture is now much clearer and efforts are now focused on producing textual solutions for multilateral examination and approval at our next meeting," the chairman said. "Indeed, if we fall short of this goal at our next meeting, I will consider that we have not lived up to the expectations we have set for ourselves."
The next, the 15th, session of the working party on China's WTO accession will convene on January 10-27, 2001.
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