"....From the jus' so's ya know Department....":
BEIJING, Nov. 14
U.S. and Chinese negotiators talked down to the wire on Sunday over Beijing?s entry into the World Trade Organization after Premier Zhu Rongji weighed into the ?difficult? discussions. Chief U.S. negotiator Charlene Barshefsky left the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, where most of the talks have been held over more than four days, just 45 minutes before her scheduled flight home was due to leave.
The talks remain detailed and substantive.
U.S. SPOKESWOMAN
THERE WAS no immediate comment from either side on whether the long and difficult talks had ended.
A U.S. official said the two sides had been talking all night and Barshefsky and her Chinese counterparts had been involved following Barshefsky?s meeting with Zhu on Saturday.
President Bill Clinton has called the latest round of discussions ?difficult? but said he hoped they would end China?s 13-year quest to join the WTO before the body meets at the end of this month to launch a new round of talks.
A spokeswoman for Barshefsky said her negotiations with Zhu and Foreign Trade Minister Shi Guangsheng on Saturday went well. ?Barshefsky had a good session with Zhu and with Shi and talks continue into the night (Beijing time),? a spokeswoman for Barshefsky said earlier in Washington. ?The talks remain detailed and substantive.?
The statement suggested negotiations were back on track. By contrast Friday Barshefsky complained that no progress was being made and time was running out for negotiations.
MARKET-OPENING AGREEMENTS
To join the 134-member WTO, which sets global trading rules, China must strike market-opening trade agreements with the United States, the European Union and other WTO members.
Friday, President Clinton said there were a ?finite and limited number of issues? holding up a deal with Beijing. ?I have not given up,? Clinton said.
The goal of the U.S.-China talks was to hammer out an accord so China could join the WTO before trade ministers gather in Seattle from Nov. 30-Dec. 3 to launch a new round of global trade negotiations.
Clinton suggested before the fourth day of talks the gap between the two sides was narrow. ?There a finite and limited number of issues over which there are differences and we are working on them,? he told reporters in Washington. ?I have not given up.?
Clinton, who dismayed the visiting Zhu and much of the U.S. business community in April when he turned down what was widely regarded as a very generous Chinese offer, gave no indication of how serious the differences were.
Barshefsky, who said gloomily on Thursday there had been no progress in the first two days of talks, said only that ?both sides thought it would be useful? to go into a fourth day.
From the Chinese side there was no comment at all.
SLOW PROGRESS
?While progress has been slow thus far, because of the importance of the issue, both sides thought it would be useful to have an additional day of meetings,? Barshefsky said in a statement released in Washington and Beijing on Saturday.
Although that phrasing seemed less than promising, U.S. businessmen with long experience of China, where last-minute agreement on major deals is common, cautioned against excessive gloom.
?It?s not over until it?s over,? said U.S.-China Business Council President Robert Kapp.
Clinton hoped a market-opening agreement could be struck this week so China could join the World Trade Organization before trade ministers gather in Seattle from Nov. 30 to Dec. 3 to launch a new round of global trade talks.
A U.S.-China accord would give American companies and investors unprecedented access to a wide range of Chinese markets, from agriculture to telecommunications.
A deal would also pave the way for China to take part in the new round of global trade talks, expected to last at least three years. |
