Agence France Presse / Patrick Baert
BEIJING, March 30 (AFP) - EU and Chinese negotiators Thursday broke off talks on a trade deal for China's WTO membership at a crucial point, with the EU side awaiting Beijing's response to proposals.
China hinted the long-awaited market-opening deal between the two sides could be in the pipeline, while the European Union team declined to say whether a deal was imminent and said it was waiting for a response from China.
"The talks are possibly to end at the later part of today," said Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Sun Yuxi, without giving details.
EU spokesman Anthony Gooch meanwhile told AFP that Thursday's talks headed by EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy and China's foreign trade minister Shi Guangsheng had broken up.
"We are waiting to recieve a response from the Chinese side," said Gooch, declining to say whether the EU had placed final proposals on the table.
Gooch said he did not know when or if the talks would resume, but he said the EU side had no "immediate" plans to leave the country.
"As far as the restart of negotiations are concerned, we are in the hands of the Chinese," he said.
In Brussels, a European Commission spokesman said later Thursday that the talks would continue.
"They've had three days of talks. They're not out of the woods yet, and they're going to keep talking for a while," the spokesman, Peter Guilford, told a press briefing.
"Don't expect them back in Brussels tomorrow morning," he added.
Earlier Thursday Lamy insisted there was no deadline for talks to secure a trade deal that would virtually ensure China's membership of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) this year.
"I don't know," said Lamy when reporters asked how long he was prepared to allow the current round of talks in Beijing to last.
Lamy was speaking just before he and his 20-strong team began their third day of meetings with their Chinese counterparts at the ministry of foreign trade and economic cooperation.
The EU side said Wednesday the negotiations were going too slowly and they would not stay indefinitely if a deal was not in sight.
Although the EU has not set a clear deadline for the talks, Gooch said the team would "not wait forever."
Lamy refused to comment on whether he felt political pressure to seal a deal or his Wednesday meeting with Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji had helped push forward prospects.
The reforming premier has been the driving force behind China's push to resolve its 14-year bid to join the WTO, and his 11th-hour intervention in Sino-US trade talks in November was credited with clinching the ground-breaking agreement.
While China is keen to wrap up an agreement as soon as possible, the European side insists it is in no hurry and will only sign when it has a deal that satisfies the varied demands of all 15 member states, whose speciality exports range from French wine to British gin.
Chinese officials have signalled their optimism that a deal will be struck during this round of talks after forging agreements with Thailand, India, Argentina, Colombia, Poland and Kyrgyzstan in recent weeks.
The European Union is the last of China's major trading partners to conclude a trade liberalization deal, a prerequisite for Beijing's membership of the WTO.
However China also has to reach bilateral deals with Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Latvia, Malaysia, Mexico and Switzerland.
WTO director general Mike Moore said Wednesday China could still become a member of the global trading body this year if it sealed agreement with the EU and the smaller trading partners soon.
China gave the impression the last round of Sino-EU talks in February broke up on the edge of a deal, but the EU side said there were major differences on issues such as market access for European telecom and insurance companies.
The European side has also been pushing for more than 51 percent foreign ownership rights for European telecom companies in joint ventures.
In the Sino-US trade deal, US telecoms companies were only given the right to gradually take 50 percent stakes.:
