"....From the jus' so's ya know Department....":
US says China must play by rules on trade, rights
GENEVA, March 28 (Reuters) - A senior U.S. official said on Tuesday that China must learn to "play by the rules" of both the main U.N. human rights forum and the global trade body it is seeking to join.
"We need to foster both sets of global rules with regard to the largest nation in the world," Harold Hongju Koh, U.S. assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labour, told reporters in Geneva where the forum is under way.
Koh, the top U.S. official on human rights, denied there was a contradiction between Washington promoting China's entry into the Geneva-based World Trade Organisation while seeking condemnation of its rights record.
"It is not (a contradiction). In both cases we are using global mechanisms to encourage nations to play by global rules," Koh said.
The United States is due to present a resolution condemning China for increasing political and religious repression by mid-April to the United Nations human rights forum, whose 53 member states began their annual six-week session on March 20.
Koh said he expected the European Union to vote in favour of the resolution but the 15-member bloc, seven of whom have voting rights at the forum, has yet to declare its position.
China, which applied to the global trade watchdog in 1986, has clinched a bilateral trade deal with the United States and is trying to wrap up deals with WTO members including the EU.
"I don't think there is a meaningful possibility that in the 21st century we should have a world in which China is outside the international trading system and not playing by the international trading rules," Koh said.
"I don't think we should have a system where China is outside the world's human rights system and not playing by the world's human rights rules."
There should be "no double-standard" at the U.N., Koh said.
Since 1995, China has garnered enough developing countries' votes on a "no-action" motion to quash debate on its record.
Echoing optimism from Washington, Koh said they believed that motion now had the greatest chance of failing since 1995.
"The vote count is very close. The European Union has already indicated that they plan to oppose the no-action motion as they have done in the past. We fully expect them as in the past to support the resolution itself if it comes to a vote." |
