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To: quartersawyer who wrote (3209)	11/13/1999 7:43:00 PM
From: gdichaz	Respond to of 13582

B.Nadelson: Think that the talks continued Saturday, so may be more positive outlook than the story you posted on progress (or lack of it) through Friday suggests. Stay turned. Chaz

To: quartersawyer who wrote (3209)	11/13/1999 7:50:00 PM
From: Ruffian	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13582

To: Maurice Winn (0 ) From: Ruffian Saturday, Nov 13 1999 7:25PM ET Reply # of 1006 WTO Break Through> U.S. Reports 'Productive' Meeting With China on WTO Membership Associated Press BEIJING -- Following a breakthrough intervention by China's premier, senior U.S. and Chinese trade negotiators held a flurry of talks Saturday, moving toward an agreement to bolster Beijing's entry to the World Trade Organization. The negotiations were billed as China's best chance to break a half-year stalemate and clear the biggest hurdle in its 13-year bid to join world trade's rule-making body. Talks verged on collapse for three days until Chinese officials set up Saturday's meeting with Premier Zhu Rongji. U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky had a "productive" session with Zhu inside the Communist Party leadership compound, Zhongnanhai, her spokesman Tom Tripp said. Afterwards, she went twice to the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation for discussions with trade minister Shi Guangsheng on opening China's relatively closed markets. Lower-level negotiators worked out technical details into the night. Although both sides declined to reveal details, the Zhu meeting "set off a high-level of activity. That's a good sign," said a Western diplomat on condition of anonymity. The diplomat described the mood among the U.S. team as the best it had been since the current round opened Wednesday. Pressure has been building on both governments to come to terms on a market-access agreement, a precondition for joining the World Trade Organization. China must negotiate a similar pact with the European Union next week. All sides are facing a self-imposed deadline of Nov. 30, when the 134-member trade organization considers new global trade liberalization. If those talks are launched, Beijing could be shut out of the Geneva-based group for months if not years and would have no say over the new rules. In the six months since he turned down broad concessions from Zhu in April, President Clinton has realized he let a historic opportunity slip. American businesses have lobbied for a World Trade Organization deal for China. Membership will force China to abide by a set of transparent rules and allow U.S. and other foreign companies to sell goods and services directly to the blossoming Chinese middle class. Tariffs and other barriers to trade and investment will fall. For China, consumers will immediately benefit, having access to lower-priced goods, cheaper cars, better phone service. Foreign investment will boost economic growth and create needed jobs. Industries long-cosseted under central planning will be forced to change or whither under the competition. "The success of my country's 20 years of reforms has largely, almost all of it, been due to learning modern methods from abroad. We have not only benefited from technology, but even more from the market system," said Mao Yushi, an economist with Unirule, a think tank and consulting firm here. China's leaders have had to overcome strong domestic fears about the global competition of membership in the trade group. Anti-U.S. sentiment ignited by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia made accommodating Washington politically dangerous, leading to months of foot-dragging on trade. By intervening in Ms. Barshefsky's talks with Shi, Zhu gave one of the surest signs that he and other reform-minded Chinese leaders have regained the offensive. In four sessions over three days, Mr. Shi had shied from significant concessions in sensitive service sectors -- a key U.S. demand. Zhu and other reform-minded Chinese leaders believe World Trade Organization membership will prod reluctant state industries and their political backers into making the government-ordered changes they have resisted for nearly two years. But because China's markets have been protected for so long, the dislocations will be enormous. In the short term, unemployment, already running at about 8% in the cities, will swell as state factories fail. Small family farms will go under, adding to the 130 million rural migrants combing China for work. "In the WTO, everyone is equal before the rules. But if the laws are equal for all then it's not equal for the weak and the small, and the results won't benefit them," said Mao.