THE European Union is expected to press for China to be included in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) within one year.
''We will do all in our power to make it possible,'' said EU External Economic Relations Commissioner Sir Leon Brittan yesterday.
It was the first time the EU had made clear it would like to see China included in GATT so quickly. Sir Leon set out a shopping list of conditions to be met by China, including improvements in human rights, but insisted that the task would not be ''impossibly difficult''.
Sir Leon, who will travel to China later this month for talks with government ministers in Beijing on trade links with Europe, told an influential audience of diplomats and industrialists at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London that ifthe terms were right, the early membership of China and Taiwan would be in the interests of the world economy along with those of both countries.
It was the first time that Sir Leon, a former British cabinet minister who has been tipped in the past to become European Commission President, had spoken on links with China, and his powerful speech sent a message to GATT and its successor, the World Trade Organisation, that they should not be too rigid in denying entry.
''The EU would welcome conclusion of the membership process for China, and for Taiwan, this year if it is possible,'' he said.
''When East Asia is fully represented in the multilateral trade system, economic relations will be easier because we shall all be speaking the same language and applying the same rules.
