GENEVA, March 20 (AFP) - The panel preparing China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) met Monday to consider queries member states have about proposed rules on trade with China in agriculatural produce.
Several WTO members have asked for details on bilateral agricultural regulations that are to be written into the protocol of Beijing's admission to the trade group, it said in Geneva.
The panel's meeting is an indication that discussions between China and WTO members who could feel threatened by its membership were moving forward, the body noted.
The panel considering China's candidacy was created in 1987 as part of the WTO's predecessor, the General Agreement on Tarifs and Trade (GATT), and was meeting for the first time since 1998.
It is to draft an admission protocol accompanied by annexes detailing a calendar for application of regulations on commercial relations.
For its part, the Chinese delegation presented a update on the country's trade laws and commercial regulations.
Costa Rica, Ecuador, the European Union, Guatemala, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Malaysia, Mexico, Poland, and Switzerland are the only states and bodies yet to conclude bilateral trade agreements with China.
On Saturday, the European commissioner in charge of trade, Pascal Lamy, said he would go to Beijing next Monday to push bilateral talks that would open the way for China's admission to the WTO.
Beijing had said in February that an accord in principle had been reached with the EU, but the union immediately denied the report.
The United States and China finalized an agreement last fall on conditions for its admission to the trade organization, and the Clinton administration has proposed legislation to permanently establish normal trade relations.
But the measure has met strong opposition by Republican lawmakers in the US House of Representatives, where a vote is expected by the end of May.:
