Clinton sends team to Beijing to resume WTO talks
(excerpts)
By Arshad Mohammed
WASHINGTON, Nov 8 (Reuters) - President Bill Clinton sent his top trade negotiator and a key White House aide to China on Monday to try to hammer out an agreement for Beijing to join the World Trade Organization, the White House said.
The trip represents a last-ditch effort by the United States to see if it can negotiate an agreement by the end of the month, when ministers from the 134 WTO members will gather in Seattle to launch a new round of world trade talks.
White House spokesman Joe Lockhart, confirming what a U.S. official told Reuters earlier, said U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky would fly to China accompanied by Gene Sperling, who chairs the influential White House National Economic Council.
"The president, as part of our efforts to reach an agreement on WTO, has asked Charlene Barshefsky to travel to China, which she will be doing today, for two days of talks to see if we can reach an agreement with the Chinese on a viable basis for (their) accession into WTO," Lockhart told reporters.
The U.S. Trade Representative's office said that the team left Washington earlier on Monday and expected to hold talks in Beijing on Wednesday and Thursday, returning home on Friday.
DEAL POSSIBLE BY END OF MONTH?
Lockhart said it was conceivable the administration could strike a WTO deal with China by the end of the month, but said he did not want to suggest that this would actually happen.
"Both sides are serious about this. I don't want to preclude that it couldn't get done, but I also don't want to raise expectations that it will get done," Lockhart said.
15:40 11-08-99
|
