Agence France Presse / Phil Chetwynd
BEIJING, March 31 (AFP) - Trade negotiations between China and the European Union collapsed Friday without the vital agreement Beijing needs to seal its 14-year attempt to join the World Trade Organisation.
The 20-strong team of EU negotiators headed by Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy announced they would be leaving for Brussels and no new negotiations had been scheduled.
Neither the EU nor the Chinese gave any indication of the sticking points in the four days of talks but both sides tried to sound positive.
"Some progress has been made but a final agreement has not been reached," said Anthony Gooch, spokesman for Lamy.
"The four days of talks were held in a constructive spirit with positive movement on both sides resulting in a certain narrowing of differences on the outstanding issues under negotiation," he told reporters.
Lamy had given his Chinese counterparts at the ministry of foreign trade and economic cooperation (MOFTEC) a firm set of proposals after Thursday's talks.
Despite the setback, he insisted the EU was committed to forging an agreement to open up China's vast market of 1.25 billion people to European businesses, and it supported China's bid for WTO membership.
"A final package should be balanced, taking due account of the sensitivity of the important trading relationship between the EU and China," Lamy said.
"I will now report back to the 15 EU member states on whose behalf I negotiate as well as the European parliament in order to assess how best to approach a future round of negotiations," he said.
A spokesman for China's MOFTEC described the talks as "positive, constructive and fruitful", adding MOFTEC Minister Shi Guangsheng had invited Lamy to return.
A European Commission spokesman in Brussels said the EU remained confident of reaching an accord by the end of April.
"There is a process, and it is a process which is advancing," the spokesman said.
"We understand the talks have been fruitful," the spokesman said, adding, "There are still obviously some issues on which agreement was not reached. I'm not going to say where these were."
In Paris a foreign ministry spokesman said France still wanted to see rapid Chinese membership of the WTO, but an accord should take "full account of specific European interests."
The European Union is the last of China's major trading partners still to conclude a trade liberalization deal necessary for its entry into the WTO, and the failure to reach a deal is a blow to Beijing.
The EU has been under pressure from both China and the United States to wrap up a deal quickly to send the right message to US lawmakers who are preparing to debate the Sino-US deal reached in November.
Sources close to the talks told AFP Lamy had come to Beijing with a very firm plan and did not have the scope to negotiate far beyond its bounds.
"Lamy has a very clear and precise mandate for the negotiations. He will have to return to Brussels for consultations with all the 15 EU members to obtain a new mandate," said one source.
Another source said the EU team had come here under pressure from the United States to push for a deal, but added the European side was in no hurry to agree to something that did not satisfy all 15 members.
"The Chinese are trying to test our patience, we know it's very difficult for the Chinese government to give us something, but there are genuine European interests which have to be safeguarded," added a European diplomat.
The EU side has said the Sino-US deal accounted for 80 percent of their concerns, but because they were representing 15 nations they had very specific demands.
Luciano Bay, head of Italian automaker Fiat's China operations and chairman of the Italian Chamber of Commerce, described the stalemate as "disappointing."
"I think it is fair to say these negotiations did not break down over small tariff issues. The issue of telecoms is extremely important to Europe because representing 15 countries it has so many large telecoms companies with extensive interests here, so is insurance."
The previous round of Sino-EU talks broke up in February with the EU citing differences on market access for telecom and insurance companies.
The European side has been pushing for more than 51 percent foreign ownership rights for European telecom companies in joint ventures.
Once the agreement is signed with the Europeans, China only has to conclude bilateral deals with Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Latvia, Malaysia, Mexico and Switzerland before it can join the 135-member WTO.:
