U.S., China hold urgent talks on WTO
September 28, 1999
Web posted at: 10:04 a.m. HKT (0204 GMT)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Top U.S. and Chinese trade negotiators resumed talks on Monday in a last-ditch bid to bring Beijing into the World Trade Organization this year.
A WTO agreement was not expected to be reached during the one-day negotiating session in Washington.
But U.S. officials and business leaders held out hope that Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky and her Chinese counterpart, Trade Minister Shi Guangsheng, would narrow their differences over U.S. commercial access to Chinese markets.
Shi and U.S. trade officials declined to comment at the start of the talks, which were expected to stretch into Monday evening.
Negotiators have no time to waste. The deadline for China's accession into the global trade body is widely seen as late November, when WTO ministers launch the next round of global trade talks in Seattle. Any delay could leave Beijing shut out of the global trading body for years.
"They are right up against the deadline now," said Greg Mastel, director of the global economic policy project at the New America Foundation, a Washington-based think tank.
Barshefsky and Shi last met on September 13 on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in New Zealand, but were unable to settle disagreements over the timing and scope of reductions in Chinese trade barriers.
The United States wants China to stand by previous market-opening proposals in such areas as agriculture and telecommunications. But Beijing has yet to make a clear commitment, frustrating industry groups who thought those issues had been settled.
Barshefsky also is under pressure from President Bill Clinton and members of Congress to wring additional concessions out of Beijing to open China's financial and banking sectors, and to improve safeguards against surges in Chinese exports of steel and textiles.
But so far Beijing has balked at U.S. demands, insisting that China be treated as a developing country, which would give it WTO entry on easier terms.
That would outrage business groups and their allies in the Republican-controlled Congress, who want a pact to give corporate America unprecedented access to China's vast market, potentially the world's largest with 1.2 billion consumers.
Congressional support is critical since Clinton would have to convince lawmakers to grant Beijing permanent most-favored nation trade status, which the United States now refers to as normal trade relations.
But congressional Republican leaders said there was little chance of getting a trade pact through Congress this year because of its busy schedule, lawmakers' concerns about the trade deficit with China and allegations that Beijing stole U.S. nuclear secrets.
Organized labour groups have complicated matters by putting pressure on Vice President Al Gore and other Democrats to block a trade pact, which unions fear will hurt American workers as Chinese imports surge. Gore, the front-runner for the 2000 Democratic presidential nomination, is counting on labour's support at the polls next year.
Congress is expected to adjourn in November for the year. |
