BEIJING, March 27 (Reuters) - China is upbeat on clinching a deal with the European Union on China's entry to the World Trade Organisation, but signalled there were limits to what it would concede in EU talks this week, a state newspaper said on Monday.
The Beijing Youth Daily, while saying a WTO deal was "within striking distance," repeated trade officials' assertions that China was unlikely to give more to the EU than it had to the United States in a landmark bilateral deal reached in November.
"With the exception of pledges that cannot be made to any WTO member, there are few remaining disputes between China and the EU," the newspaper said, quoting recent remarks by Foreign Trade Minister Shi Guangsheng.
China's chief negotiator Long Yongtu made similar remarks in Geneva last week, saying "China could not give to one partner what it had not been able to promise to another."
EU trade chief Pascal Lamy was slated to begin talks in Beijing on Tuesday in the third round of efforts this year to close a bilateral agreement to enable China to join the WTO.
Lamy spokesman Anthony Gooch said last week EU negotiators would be "putting our best efforts into trying to cut a bilateral deal."
Gooch played down Long's remarks, saying they were just part of a tough negotiating process.
EU officials have said outstanding areas of difficulty included services, telecommunications, life insurance, banking and distribution.
They have declined to say how long the delegation would remain in Beijing, but said that they would not hesitate to return to Brussels without a deal.
China, potentially the world's biggest marketplace with 1.3 billion consumers, has reached deals with 27 major countries within the 135-member WTO, but these agreements still have to be "multilateralised" at the Geneva-based body.
Last week, WTO members set a mid-May date for a major push on finalising China's entry bid, which began in 1986.
The EU-China negotiations take place as the U.S. Congress prepares to debate legislation that would grant China permanent trading privileges in the U.S. market.
In exchange for China opening markets, President Bill Clinton says the Congress must grant the country permanent normal trade relations (NTR), a status Beijing now enjoys only after an annual congressional review.
Opponents of permanent NTR, which would guarantee Chinese goods the same low-tariff access to U.S. markets as products from nearly every other nation, have cited China's record on human rights and labour, as well as recent military threats against democratic rival Taiwan, as reasons to deny Beijing the status.:
