By JOHN ZAROCOSTAS
GENEVA, Switzerland, March 21 (UPI) -- China's 13-year bid to join the World Trade Organization inched forward this week but more progress will rest on the outcome of bilateral talks next week with the European Union, and the vote in the U.S. Congress on China's trade status, senior diplomats said.
The talks between the EU trade commissioner, Pascal Lamy, and China's minister of trade, Shi Guangsheng, from March 28 are considered crucial toward removing one of the major remaining obstacles to WTO membership.
During a WTO session on China entry bid, the Swiss Chairman of the talks, Pierre Louis Girard, said in a statement, the very major progress "shows that we are entering the final phase."
Moreover, the chief U.S. negotiator on China, Don Philips, told delegates that enormous amounts of progress had been made. He also said that the talks were entering the final phase, trade officials said.
The EU is the only major trading power that has not concluded its bilateral market access negotiations, one of the key elements in the WTO entry process.
A further nine countries that also have still to formally conclude market access talks with China include Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, Poland, and Switzerland, among others. Some indicated today they hoped to conclude in the next few days.
To date, a total of 27 member countries of the global trade oversight body, including the United States, Japan, Canada, Brazil, India, Australia and Korea have signed-off on bilateral market access packages. A further 98 countries, out of the 135-member body, opted not to conduct any bilateral market access talks.
According to WTO data, in 1998 China was ranked the world's 9th largest exporter, with shipments worth $183.8 billion, and the 11th biggest importer, with merchandise purchases totaling $140.2 billion.
Brussels, say European diplomats, has been holding out to try and secure better terms from China on a number of strategic areas of interest for its investors and exporters including telecommunications, insurance and some key industrial lines.
WTO ambassadors hinted in private that it is difficult to predict whether China's bid will be successful sometime in the second half of this year until the EU and China broker a deal, and until the outcome of the vote in Congress on China.
The fate of the historic Sino-U.S. bilateral WTO market access package agreed last November will hinge on whether Congress votes to grant China "Normal Trading Relations," status that effectively grants Beijing unconditional most favored nation status. This is a cornerstone's of the WTO rules and will bring to an end the annual process whereby China has had to secure congressional approval of its MFN status.
China's Vice Minister of Trade, and chief WTO negotiator, Long Yongtu, in remarks aimed at Capitol Hill, told delegates during a negotiating session here Tuesday:
"I strongly urge relevant WTO members, upon completion of the bilateral negotiations with China, to expeditiously fulfill their obligations to amend the outdated domestic legislation in order to ensure establishment of a stable and constructive economic and trade relations at multilateral and bilateral levels. With China on an unconditional MFN" Western trade envoys say the final difficult task in the talks will be the "protocol of accession" - the document that will codify the terms under which China will be allowed to join.
The same sources said the end game talks on the protocol, especially the hard elements on anti-dumping, subsidies and special safeguards, will not be tackled in earnest until after the Sino-EU talks are concluded and the vote in Congress is completed.
U.S. Trade representative Charlene Barshefsky has warned failure to grant China NTR, would put U.S. exporters and businesses on a handicap with respect to competitors from other parts of the world that would reap the benefits.
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