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China to be WTO Member Very Soon: Italian FM
Visiting Italian Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini said in Singapore Monday that he expects China to be a WTO member very soon and believes China's entry into WTO is in the interest of both China and other WTO members.
Answering a question by Xinhua after he made a speech at a luncheon hosted by the Italian Chamber of Commerce in his honor, Dini said that the basic conditions for China to enter the WTO have been met, and there only some small details remain to be sorted out.
"We expect that China will be a member of WTO, if not in February or March, but very very soon," he said.
"We think this is an important development because participating in the WTO does not mean to have only advantages, but also to take your own responsibility," he said, adding China knows that by joining the WTO it has to liberalize certain sectors of its economy, bring it up to the standards of WTO countries.
"It is in the interest of China. It is also in the interest of other countries," he emphasized.
On the multilateral negotiations on China's entry into WTO, Dini said that there remain only a few details on specific issues in different sectors that need to be overcome.
Dini is in Singapore on a two-day official visit to the city state and met with Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong earlier Monday.
He is to leave on Tuesday to visit Australia and New Zealand.
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