Agence France Presse
BEIJING, April 5 (AFP) - US Commerce Secretary William Daley on Wednesday called on China and the Europeans to strike an early World Trade Organization (WTO) deal to make easier his job of convicing lawmakers at home to pass related legislation.
Daley said a Sino-European WTO deal would improve his chances of persuading Congress members to pass permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) for China, a step Beijing insists is necessary to validate its own WTO deal signed with the US last year.
Currently PNTR, a status in which Washington bestows equal trade privileges on all but a handful of countries, is approved annually after invariably bitter debates over Beijing's human rights record, labor abuses, arms proliferation and aggression toward Taiwan.
Daley, US President Bill Clinton's point man in the fight to get the US Congress to vote for PNTR for China, said he was "disappointed" by the failure of WTO talks between China and the European Union (EU) last week.
"We would like to see that brought to a resolution, and if it is I think that would give great impetus to the positive attitude of our passing PTNR in Washington," he told journalists after his arrival in Beijing.
Warning of the economic advantages Washington would pass on to other traders if it failed to get the PNTR passed, Daley said "I would assume that if that happens you would see the EU come to the conclusion rather rapidly with the Chinese on their disagreements."
Daley, due to meet Chinese Trade Minister Shi Guangsheng Thursday as part of the annual bilateral Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade, also warned of the negative fallout the US would suffer in its ties with China.
"I think it would have a serious negative impact on the US commercial relationship and I would imagine it would have an impact politically on the relationship," he said.
"I think there would be great disappointment (in China). China went a very long way in their commitments in our agreement."
A US embassy official said Daley's meeting with Shi would "be the most important yet."
"The two leaders will discuss ways to strengthen the bilateral commerical relationship, cooperative means to assist China in its transition to a market-based economy and ways to help US businesses in their efforts to export to China," he said.
Daley's visit is the first of two this month by the commerce secretary and precedes a trip by a US congressional delegation which Daley will lead later in April in an effort to secure support for an expected May PNTR vote.
US Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman will lead another congressional delegation as the Clinton administration seeks to open wider Chinese markets to US businesses despite stiff opposition from human rights, labor and the Taiwan lobbies.
China signed a deal last November pledging sweeping open-market concessions in exchange for US support for its WTO membership.
China last year had a 69 billion dollar trade surplus with the US, according to US statistics, but the figure is expected to fall as China lowers tariffs steeply during the first five years following its WTO accession and opens up its financial, telecoms and insurance sectors.
China is also expected to enter the WTO at the same time as Taiwan, further cementing the annual 25 billion dollars in cross-strait trade and forcing Taipei, which presently refuses to allow direct trade links with the mainland, to recognize the mainland as a WTO trading partner.
China is expected to enter the WTO this year provided a key bilateral agreement can be reached with the EU in the coming months.:
