Donny, it may not collapse just yet, the EU-China WTO talks next week may ignite this group again. I boxed my position in the low 30s, awaiting for another spike next week.
Regards,
Tom
Talks with EU could bring China closer to WTO goal
By Adrian Croft
BRUSSELS, Jan 22 (Reuters) - European Union and Chinese
officials meet in Brussels next week for negotiations which
could bring China a step closer to its long-held goal of joining
the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
Teams led by Chinese Deputy Foreign Trade Minister Long
Yongtu and senior European Commission trade official
Hans-Friedrich Beseler begin talks on Monday.
The EU will seek market-opening concessions from China -- a
potentially gigantic market with one fifth of the world's
population -- as a condition for its WTO entry.
If all goes well, the talks, which are expected to last
until Wednesday morning, could be the final round of technical
negotiations between the two sides, EU officials said.
An agreement could then be sealed in a meeting between
European Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy and Chinese Foreign
Trade Minister Shi Guangsheng in Beijing. China has been trying
to join the WTO and its predecessor for 13 years.
EU SEEKS LOWER TARIFFS, MORE OPEN MARKET
The EU will press China, the largest trading power outside
the WTO, for lower import tariffs on some goods and to move
towards opening its telecommunications, banking, insurance,
distribution, tourism and investment markets, EU officials said.
"We will try to do everything in our power to sort out all
the problems next week," a top European Commission negotiator,
speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters on Friday.
After the United States, Japan and Canada sealed separate
pacts with China last year, the 15-nation EU is the biggest
trade power yet to reach an agreement to allow China to join the
135-member WTO. Any WTO member has the right to negotiate its
trade concerns with an applicant country.
EU-China talks on WTO entry were interrupted for several
months following NATO's bombing of China's embassy in Belgrade
last May. Negotiators last met for three days of inconclusive
talks in Geneva in October.
Next week's talks coincide with a visit to Brussels by
Chinese Vice-Premier Wu Bangguo, who will meet European
Commission President Romano Prodi and other commissioners.
EU UNDER PRESSURE FROM U.S.
The EU is under pressure from the U.S. government to wrap up
negotiations with China quickly to improve chances of getting
quick congressional approval for its trade agreement with China.
"We would like to see them reach a conclusion as soon as
they can and ... for our purposes, the sooner the better," David
Aaron, U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade,
said in Brussels this week.
EU officials said they would not be rushed.
"We are certainly not going to conclude a single day earlier
... because somebody wants a deal to be adopted quickly in the
Congress," the EU negotiator said.
The EU says it has long been a supporter of getting China
into the WTO. A more open Chinese market would offer the EU hope
of reducing its huge trade deficit with China, which reached 21
billion euros ($21.15 billion) in the first nine months of 1999.
EU officials say the U.S. agreement with China covered 80
percent of EU trade concerns. Under WTO rules, Chinese offers to
the U.S. must be extended to all WTO members.
But the EU has a number of concerns, on industrial goods,
agriculture and services, where it wants Chinese concessions.
The EU negotiator said the bloc was open to giving the
Chinese transition periods to give them time to adapt to a
global market economy. But the EU would insist on these being as
short as possible, possibly one or two years.
($1=.9927 Euro)
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