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Mainland WTO bid to be aided by set deadline

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China's long sought-after entry into the World Trade Organisation (WTO) could be accelerated even further if the parties in negotiation are compelled to work to a definitive deadline, says former WTO director-general Peter Sutherland.

Mr Sutherland, now chairman of Goldman Sachs International, said an appropriate deadline might be next year, when the WTO's predecessor, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (Gatt), celebrates its 50th anniversary.

He said there was clearly a strong political commitment between China and the United States to solve the WTO entry question, and that factor should be capitalised on by the negotiating parties.

'China has said it would like to conclude the accession negotiations by the time the US and Chinese leaders meet at the end of the year, and I think there's a lot to be said for pushing forward the argument,' Mr Sutherland said.

Imposing a deadline on China's 10-year negotiation, the longest in multilateral trading history, is likely to prove controversial however, as failure to achieve entry could deal a significant blow to the WTO's credibility.

In December 1994, China's own attempt to impose a deadline to become a founder WTO member, ended in spectacular failure, when the US flatly told Chinese negotiators there had been insufficient liberalisation of China's trade regime to warrant entry.

But last month the two-year stalemate that ensued ended after Beijing presented to the WTO working party a pledge to observe the WTO's intellectual property rights agreement, remove over three years restrictions on foreign investor trading rights, won agreement to maintain state-trading rights and offered to phase out controls on selected items.

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