Agence France Presse
BEIJING, Feb 13 (AFP) - Senior officials from the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, meeting in Beijing, agreed China should enter the World Trade Organization as soon as possible.
China, which will host this year's series of APEC meetings, will have less of an impact on APEC's own free-trade agenda if it is not itself a member of the WTO, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wang Guangya said Tuesday.
"They all feel a sense of urgency about resolving China's WTO entry," Wang said at a press briefing after chairing two days of talks among officials from APEC's 21 member countries.
In particular, he pointed out that APEC's trade ministers will meet in June in Shanghai to discuss the body's role in kickstarting a new round of WTO talks, making it important that China becomes a WTO member before then.
"It's very important for the membership question of China to be resolved before June so it can exert a positive impact on the outcome of the trade ministers' meeting," he said.
There had been hopes that China would enter the WTO late last year or early this, but most analysts now expect negotiations on accession in Geneva to drag on for a few more months.
China has been arguing that it should be considered a developing country when it comes to WTO rules on agricultural domestic support, and be allowed to subsidise up to 10 percent of the value of production.
China also still needs to clinch a bilateral deal with Mexico to pave the way for membership.
Wang on Tuesday said North Korea had been invited to participate in APEC meetings in China this year, but had not responded to that invitation yet.
"If there is no explicit application (to be involved in APEC) activities there is nothing other APEC members can do about this," he said.
Even if North Korea eventually decides to involve itself in this year's series of meetings, full membership of APEC will be several years down the road, as the organization currently has a moratorium on new entrants.
APEC was set up in 1989 as an informal talking group for a dozen Asia-Pacific economies but has developed into a powerful engine to drive global and regional free trade.
Its members are: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam.:
