U.S. pushes China on CDMA mobile technology
BEIJING, April 6 (Reuters) - U.S. Commerce Secretary William Daley said he won a pledge from Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji on Thursday to try to kickstart the stalled rollout of CDMA mobile phone technology in China.
Daley raised the issue during broader talks with Chinese leaders aimed at underscoring White House determination to push through key trade legislation that supports Beijing's entry to the World Trade Organisation.
China agreed last year to roll out networks using CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) cellular standard, which was pioneered by U.S. company Qualcomm Inc
But the plans were held up by industry regulators in Beijing just days after Qualcomm reached a patent licensing agreement with Chinese negotiators.
Zhu last month blamed the holdup on bureaucratic snags, saying the main phone company with plans to use CDMA had failed to coordinate with the Ministry of Information Industry before it began accepting contract bids by foreign equipment vendors.
"Zhu promised that he would enourage the ministry to move forward," Daley told reporters.
Qualcomm would earn licensing royalities from a CDMA rollout, while North American telecoms manufactures such as Motorola Corp, Lucent Technologies Inc and Nortel Networks Corp could win meaty contracts.
Daley said some people believe China is stalling the rollout to give domestic firms a chance to catch up on the technology and compete for contracts.
MUTUAL SUPPORT FOR TRADE PACT
Daley also met President Jiang Zemin on Thursday, and Daley said he was confident Congress would vote to grant China Permanent Normal Trade Relations (NTR).
Congress cannot block China's WTO entry, but without granting Beijing permanent NTR the United States would not be able to reap lower Chinese tariffs and other trade and investment concessions.
Passage is vitually assured in the Senate, but the House of Representatives vote, scheduled for the week of May 22-26, is expected to be tight.
U.S. President Bill Clinton is pushing hard for its passage, but many members of his Democratic party are siding with labour unions which believe free trade with China kills American jobs.
"We are very positive about the prospects of passing WTO," Daley told reporters.
Zhu and Jiang showed a solid understanding of the political minefield the issue has become in Congress, he said.
"I caution everyone that there will be lots of coments made over the next few months -- charges, allegations, hysteria going on as this heats up," he said.
Jiang told Daley normal trade relations are "in the interest of both China and the U.S.," Xinhua news agency said.
"China will as always, make an active contribution to the healthy develpment of the world's economy and trade," Xinhua quoted Jiang as saying.
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