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Microcap & Penny Stocks : Zia Sun(zsun) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Francois Goelo who wrote (286)	4/8/1999 12:05:00 AM
From: The Doctor	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10354

Hot off the presses from CNN...Wow!!!!! China talks gain on WTO 'Significant' progress in negotiations as premier visits Washington, aides say April 7, 1999: 11:39 p.m. ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. and Chinese negotiators made ''significant'' progress in trade talks on Wednesday, U.S. officials said as both sides made a determined bid to strike a deal in time for Premier Zhu Rongji's visit. Negotiators planned to work well into the night to try to resolve remaining differences on a deal that would clear the way for U.S. approval of China's bid to join the World Trade Organization, U.S. officials said. One official said negotiators had made ''significant'' progress at closing the gaps on a number of market access and tariff issues during their discussions. Zhu, who is on a nine-day visit to the United States, and President Bill Clinton will meet formally at the White House on Thursday, but planned an informal get-together Wednesday night. Clinton, in a speech at the U.S. Institute for Peace, began laying the groundwork for selling a WTO deal to a skeptical Republican-led Congress upset by China's human rights record and recent allegations that Beijing stole nuclear secrets from a U.S. research lab. ''Getting this done and getting it done right is profoundly in our national interest,'' Clinton said. ''It is not a favor to China. It is the best way to level the playing field.'' Details remain to be worked out U.S. trade officials said negotiators narrowed differences on a number of market access and tariff issues in agriculture, but that some details remained to be worked out. Negotiators were also concentrating on telecommunications and insurance and banking access issues as well as a phase-out schedule for textile quotas, officials said. A deal with China on its 13-year bid to join the 134-member WTO could be the highlight of Zhu's visit, the first by a Chinese premier to the United States in 15 years. Clinton said it would be an opportunity to open up China's markets to more U.S. exports and to provide support in Beijing for reform. ''If China accepts the responsibilities that come with WTO membership, that will give us broad access to China's markets while accelerating its internal reforms and propelling it toward acceptance of the rule of law,'' Clinton added. ''The bottom line is this: If China is willing to play by the global rules of trade, it would be an inexplicable mistake for the United States to say no,'' he said. In order to join the WTO, China has to work out trade agreements with a number of its trading partners, including the United States and European Union. Both U.S. and Chinese officials want to see the Asian giant as part of the world trade system by the time the next round of global trade liberalization talks begin at the end of the year. Congress cool to idea But many members of Congress are cool to the idea of letting China into the WTO and criticized Clinton's policy of engagement with Beijing. ''Letting China into the WTO at this time shows how far this administration is willing to go in an effort to salvage its failed policy of strategic partnership with China,'' Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott said in a statement. ''This is the wrong decision at the wrong time,'' the Mississippi Republican added. Congress would not vote on U.S. approval of China's WTO entry, but lawmakers would have to vote on permanently ending the annual review of China's trade status and whether it should have what use to be called "most favored nation" trade status and is now call normal trade relations. The trade status gives China the same low-tariff access to U.S. markets as nearly every other country in the world. If the United States fails to grant permanent NTR to China when it enters the WTO, U.S. businesses may not realize the benefits of the market opening package negotiated as part of the WTO deal, U.S. officials said. The administration is expected to rely heavily on lobbying by businesses interested in getting a share of China's vast market potential in order to get Congress to accept a deal. Meeting isn't a deadline U.S. officials have said they do not see Thursday's meeting between Clinton and Zhu as a deadline for a deal. ''If the right deal doesn't happen by tomorrow, we are going to keep on going,'' Kenneth Lieberthal, National Security Council director for Asian affairs, told reporters. The two leaders are expected to announce a civil aviation agreement that will double passenger and cargo flights between the two countries, officials said.