Early WTO hopes hit
US Commerce Secretary William Daley believes it may be unrealistic to hope an agreement on the mainland's entry into the World Trade Organisation (WTO) will be signed by Prime Minister Zhu Rongji in Washington in two weeks' time.
Mr Daley was speaking at a Beijing hotel on arrival from South Korea yesterday at the start of a four-day visit to the mainland as the head of a delegation of 18 senior US businessmen.
His visit comes in the middle of intense negotiations in Beijing between staff of the US Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky and the mainland's Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations in an effort to reach an agreement which Mr Zhu can sign with President Bill Clinton when they meet in Washington on April 8.
'The talks are going well, they are going forward,' Mr Daley said. 'We are optimistic that progress has been made. But the issues are complicated and difficult. I do not know if an agreement is possible.
'The agreement must be on commercially meaningful terms. China will come into the WTO sooner or later, but it may be unrealistic to get it done by the summit.' Thanks to the offer of substantial concessions by Beijing in the past two weeks in telecommunications, banking and farm products, hopes have been rising that a deal was possible.
Mr Daley's comments appeared designed to cool those hopes.
He said he would discuss the WTO issue today with Mr Zhu and State Councillor Wu Yi.
Ms Barshefsky is due to arrive in Beijing this week for more talks with mainland officials, but US diplomats are still refusing to comment on her travel plans.
Without a membership deal, the mainland would be left out of another round of WTO negotiations at the end of the year which would only raise the barriers to entry. A trade deal would be a rare burst of sunshine in Sino-US relations which have grown ever gloomier over the past few months as there has been more and more questioning of President Clinton's policy of engagement with China.
Analysts said the mainland's intensified interest in gaining membership comes as Beijing is running out of tricks to kick start its slowing economy.
On Thursday morning Mr Daley will join Wu Jichuan, Minister of Information Industry, at the opening ceremony of a Sino-US seminar and hold a one-hour meeting with Wu Yi.
Wu Yi has been the strongest opponent of foreign ownership in the mainland's telecommunications, but appears to have been forced by Mr Zhu to back down.
Industry analysts say the mainland is considering foreign equity participation in value-added telecom services with a ceiling on ownership of less than 50 per cent immediately after its admission into WTO and to foreign equity participation in basic telecom services in five years or more, with the same ceiling on ownership.
Mr Daley's delegation, composed of senior US corporate and administration officials responsible for infrastructure development, has an eye on Beijing's huge domestic spending programme.
It will seek the 'long-term involvement of US firms in China's infrastructure and economic development', Mr Daley said.
After meeting other mainland leaders, the executives of the American Chamber of Commerce and giving a news conference, he leaves Beijing tomorrow for Shanghai and goes to Guangzhou on Wednesday.
