Brittan takes case for free trade to Beijing

Date: 09/10/1997

By Mark Turner

NOT to be outdone by US President Bill Clinton's imminent encounter with Chinese President Jiang Zemin, the European Union is sneaking into the country two weeks earlier to sell its own particular vision of World Trade Organisation membership.

Trade Commissioner Sir Leon Brittan's visit to Beijing next week marks a growing intensity in discussions over China's push to join the WTO, for which European approval is every bit as essential as an American thumbs-up.

It is notable, however, that while Zemin is flying to Washington, it is Brittan who will do the legwork on his lobbying trip. Nevertheless, the Commissioner may actually find himself in a stronger position than Clinton as he will be relatively immune from media and parliamentary scrutiny while pushing for trade concessions and closer commercial ties. This will give Brittan a freer hand as he encourages greater tariff reductions, more liberal services and a gradual end to state trading.

Despite some important concessions won from China over the past six months of talks - including tariff reductions to an average of 15&percent;, non-tariff barrier phase-outs over eight years and faster growth in quotas for cars and electronics - Beijing has yet to convince Europe, which has proved considerably more flexible than the US on transition periods, that it is ready to join.

“I hope that further significant progress can be made in the coming period towards agreeing terms,” Brittan told trade ministers at the end of September in Tokyo. “The kind of things that we are asking are no more than is reasonable for a country of the size and impact of China.”

His increasingly tough stance has prompted Japan to break its previous silence on the subject, with the country's Trade Minister Mitsuo Horiuchi telling Brittan that it was “important to admit China into a regime based on common world trading rules as quickly as possible”.

On the other side of the coin, Beijing continues to criticise EU anti-dumping practices (which hit the country harder than any other) as every bit as illiberal as any Chinese practices.