WTO talks to dominate Union-China summit

Date: 16/12/1999

By Gareth Harding

CHINA'S bid to join the World Trade Organisation will be only one of the issues on the agenda for next week's high-level summit between the EU and Beijing, but it is bound to dominate the annual meeting between the two sides.

Hopes are high that after China's recent agreements with the US, Japan and Canada, the Union will be able to strike a swift accord with the Asian superpower which would pave the way for it to enter the Geneva-based trade club after 13 years in the waiting room.

However, European Commission officials warn that there is “still a way to go” before member states will be ready to give Beijing the green light to join the WTO. At the last substantive round of talks in late October, the two blocs made some progress on cutting tariffs on industrial goods, but they are still far apart on opening up China's telecoms, banking and insurance sectors.

At the Seattle meeting earlier this month, Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy presented China's Foreign Trade Minister Shi Guangsheng with a list of areas where the EU still expects the country to make concessions. If China meets the Union's demands, there is a chance that the two sides could clinch a deal at next Tuesday's (21 December) summit which would allow it to join the WTO early in the new year.

The EU is the last remaining major trading power which has yet to reach a market-opening agreement with the world's most populous nation and it is under intense pressure to wrap up talks quickly. But officials insist they will not capitulate to outside pressure. “We are ready to go as far as possible, but under no conditions will we allow speed to prevail over substance,” said one.

Finnish Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen and Commission President Romano Prodi will aim to put relations with China on a more secure footing when they meet Prime Minister Zhu Rongji next week. The last planned summit between the two sides in April was cancelled after NATO accidentally bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade and relations have been further soured by the West's criticism of the Communist state for its human rights record.

External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten will accompany Prodi and Lipponen to next week's summit. It will be the ex-governor's first visit to Beijing since he presided over the hand-over of the former British colony of Hong Kong in 1997.

Ironically, Patten will be present as Macao reverts to Chinese rule after almost half a millennium as a Portuguese enclave on 20 December. The Commission is keen to ensure the trading port enjoys the same special status as the former UK colony of Hong Kong. In a policy paper adopted last month, it said “the key to Macau's future stability lies in the 'one country, two systems' concept on which Macau's autonomy will rest”. The paper added that “it would ultimately be in the best interest of Macau and all of China that the territory's democratic process be constantly improved”.