China WTO entry concerns upstage China-EU summit

October 24, 2000
Web posted at: 8:38 AM HKT (0038 GMT)

BEIJING (Reuters) -- China and the European Union ended a summit Monday stressing their commitment to overcoming snags in China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO).

But the discussions on China's WTO accession, which overshadowed political issues at the one-day summit, produced scant evidence of a breakthrough in the impasse.

EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy, who headed the EU team in tough, but ultimately successful bilateral negotiations with China, told Reuters in an interview he had clarified the issues stalling multilateral talks on China's WTO accession in Geneva.

"The Chinese President (Jiang Zemin) and prime minister have said that their wish was that this could be done before the end of the year," Lamy said. "We will work hard in that direction."

The official Xinhua news agency quoted Jiang as saying both sides should approach multilateral WTO talks "from a strategic perspective, enabling China to join the global trading system at an early date."

"The EU's attitude is very important to accelerating the negotiations," Jiang said.

EU leaders said they were reassured by Premier Zhu Rongji that Beijing had not lost the will to finish its 14-year accession process.

China sticks to guns

Zhu told European Commission President Romano Prodi and French President Jacques Chirac -- whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency -- that "China does not intend to stray away from its commitments," Prodi told a news conference.

China's official Xinhua news agency said that Zhu repeated one of the sticking points in Geneva, telling EU leaders that China "hopes WTO members will not add new requirements in the multilateral negotiation process."

The EU said last week that efforts by WTO members to clarify China's "opaque or unpredictable" trade regulations met Chinese accusations that they were trying to extract new commitments.

Lamy said bilateral disputes included details on the allocation of insurance licenses and access to the distribution system. Multilateral issues involved certain trade regulations.

He said he was confident China would grant promised licenses to European insurers by its WTO entry. China agreed to issue seven licenses within 60 days under a WTO deal signed with the EU in May, but had bestowed only two by the July deadline.

Human rights, trafficking

Chirac said the EU raised China's human rights record and the "unacceptable and scandalous" trafficking in illegal immigrants from China, which became an issue in June after the death of 58 Chinese seeking to enter Britain illegally.

But he did not make clear whether Beijing committed to stem the flow of illegal immigrants or re-admit those Chinese caught.

Chirac said the EU leaders had handed over a list of individual Chinese dissidents -- the first time such a list had been presented in top-level EU-China dialogue.

Citing the need for "efficiency and appearances," however, Chirac refused to give details of the list or say whether it included imprisoned members of China's underground Catholic church or followers of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement.

Prodi said China "gave some hope" it would ratify two U.N. conventions it signed in 1997 and 1998 on economic, social and cultural rights and on civil and political rights.

The Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights is "up for deliberation and ratification" in the Oct. 23-31 session of the National People's Congress, China's parliament, Xinhua said.

But diplomats in Beijing say China does not appear ready to ratify the economic and social pact this year, while enactment of the more sensitive political treaty is probably years away.

Chirac, who met Chinese President Jiang Zemin at the weekend, said the two had agreed to try to prevent the question of a $75-million French satellite sale to Taiwan from harming ties.

France says the satellite is for commercial use, but China is concerned it has military uses. The deal calls for France to deliver the satellite by the end of 2003, French media have said.

China considers Taiwan part of its sovereign territory and has strongly criticized arms sales to the island.

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