China set to join WTO

DOHA, Qatar (Reuters) -- World trade ministers were set to approve China's entry to their global club on Saturday as rich and poor countries got down to serious haggling over whether to launch a new round of global trade talks.

China's entry to the World Trade Organization (WTO) was due to be formally approved around 1520 GMT, crowning a 15-year drive by the world's most populous country to join the body and throwing open the doors to the world's largest potential market.

The 142 WTO members will unite in welcoming China to the organization, setting aside for a moment their deep divisions over whether to launch a new round of trade liberalization talks -- the central issue of the meeting in the Gulf state of Qatar.

WTO Director-General Mike Moore said on Friday that the entry of China and Taiwan -- whose membership will be approved on Sunday -- was "a major historic event."

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The WTO meeting is being held amid intense security following the September 11 attacks on U.S. cities and U.S.-led counter-strikes on Afghanistan.

To guard against possible attack, Qatar has thrown a cordon around the talks, and a U.S. helicopter ship and two other vessels carrying 2,100 marines stand sentry in the sparkling waters off the capital Doha.

As serious negotiations began on Saturday, it became clear that rich countries such as the United States and the European Union still have a lot of work to do if they are to convince developing countries to agree to a new trade round.

Developing country opposition helped sink attempts to launch a round at the last WTO meeting in Seattle two years ago.

And while rich countries have been at pains to listen to poor countries' concerns and have made some concessions, developing countries say these do not go far enough.

They accuse rich countries of failing to fulfill all the pledges made in previous trade talks and want more time to implement earlier agreements themselves.

Kenyan opposition

Kenyan Planning Minister Adhu Awiti said that, at present, Kenya was not ready to give the go-ahead to a new trade round.

"As it stands now, we would not be ready to go for a new set of negotiations when we are not satisfied with the explanation of why the old ones have not been implemented," he told Reuters.

"We'd rather get the old implemented and take the new positions step by step," Awiti said, adding that this was a view shared by African nations and developing countries in general. Malaysian Trade Minister Rafidah Aziz told Reuters she saw the chances of a new round being launched as only 50/50.

She said there were differences between the European Union (E.U.) and the rest of the world on the environment and other issues.

The E.U. wants environmental issues and investment and competition rules discussed in a new round in addition to the traditional issues of agriculture, industrial goods and services. Developing countries oppose that.

The last WTO meeting in Seattle was disrupted by mass street protests against globalization. Only a few hundred union and environmental activists have been granted visas by Qatar.

But about 50 activists, their mouths taped up and holding placards saying "No voice in the WTO," held a symbolic protest outside the conference's official opening ceremony on Friday.

Anti-globalization protesters say the WTO's agenda is harmful for poor countries but that has not stopped the world's biggest developing country, China, making intense efforts over years to join the organization.

China timetable

China will sign the required documents on Sunday and formal entry will come a month later under WTO rules.

China will benefit from WTO membership, using entry to give the final push towards a market economy after Communist leader Deng Xiaoping started the revolution in 1978.

With China's entry to WTO all but certain, some members are starting to voice fears about Beijing's ability to stand by its pledges while they try to decide how to deal with the emerging economic superpower.

Chinese officials dismiss the fears. "China's market is open to the outside. As long as the market is open to the outside, the more economic growth we have and the better for the world," Beijing's top trade negotiator Long Yongtu told reporters.

China is already the world's seventh largest trader and is keen to champion the cause of developing countries after it enters the WTO.

But some countries worry that China's entry could bring more trade disputes as Beijing tests its new-found power.

Tokyo is already embroiled in a festering trade dispute with China over a surge in Chinese agricultural exports to Japan.