China, US Keep Talking on WTO

A vital meeting between top trade officials from Beijing and Washington ended without conclusion on Tuesday, but China said talks to kick-start its stalled bid to enter the WTO would go on through the week.

"We exchanged opinions about questions relating to the APEC meeting, Sino-US trade ties and China's entry to the WTO," Trade Minister Shi Guangsheng told reporters after more than an hour of talks with new US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick ahead of a meeting of Asia-Pacific trade chiefs.

The crucial bilateral talks -- which lasted 20 minutes longer than the scheduled 50 -- were part of an intensive programme of bilateral meetings between Beijing and key Asia-Pacific trading partners in Shanghai on Tuesday to further China's WTO bid.

"In the next few days, with regards to other questions of concern, we will continue to exchange views and opinions," Shi said, indicating discussions between the two nations would go on throughout the two days of meetings of Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) group trade ministers.

Zoellick declined immediate comment after the meeting.

Analysts are looking for a strong signal from the meetings that Beijing and Washington can reach agreement to restart China's WTO accession process, which faltered over the sticky issue of agricultural subsidies.

Shi declined to comment when reporters asked about agricultural subsidies after the meeting.

China says the bulk of the work on its WTO entry is complete and talks are down to legal details on a handful of issues and the memorandum of agreement on accession.

"Fifteen rounds of multi-lateral talks have been held to draft legal documents for China's WTO accession and we have solved most of the problems, leaving issues such as agriculture, insurance and distribution," Tuesday's Liberation Daily quoted Shi as saying.

An endorsement is expected from APEC trade ministers, meeting in Shanghai on Wednesday and Thursday, who are set to call for China's entry to the WTO by the year's end.

APEC's 21 member economies -- which generate 60 percent of world output and about half of global trade -- want free and open trade and investment between developed members by 2010 and developing ones by 2020.

Long Yongtu, Beijing's top trade negotiator was also at the meeting with Zoellick.

Long said in late May that China had given US officials its detailed reply to a proposal submitted by Washington in March to end the impasse in the marathon 14-year negotiations to join the world trade body.

BID BOGGED DOWN

While Long appeared to indicate China was edging towards a deal, US officials have played down prospects of a breakthrough in Shanghai, saying the new Bush administration's trade officials needed time to get acquainted with their Chinese counterparts.

China completed bilateral negotiations on WTO entry with the United States in 1999, but its bid has been bogged down since by Beijing's insistence it have the right to grant large subsidies to farmers.

China argues it should be treated as a developing country and allowed to put farm subsidies at 10 percent of the total value of production.

Washington, under pressure from farmers eager to tap China's huge market when it joins the WTO under open trading rules, has insisted Beijing be treated as a developed country, which means its subsidies should be capped at five percent.






People's Daily Online --- http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/