THE European Union Commissioner for Trade Policy Sir Leon Brittan has failed to convince Europe's main trading partners to ease up on conditions for China's entry into the World Trade Organisation.
China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Ukraine are the main economies among 30 countries queuing up to join the 128-member trade body.
During yesterday's session, Sir Leon called a meeting of the EU, the United States, Canada and Japan but appeared to make little headway in persuading them to send a strong political signal of support for China's entry.
The EU Commissioner, who visited China four weeks ago, stated when the five-day conference opened on Monday that a key objective for the WTO meeting was "re-launching in earnest the negotiations towards Chinese membership"
The United States, however, opposes Europe's plan for a phased accession to the WTO to give China more-time to bring its laws and trade practices into line with WTO requirements.
Acting US Trade Representative Ms Charlene Barshefsky said yesterday that Washington would continue to insist that China, which has built up a massive trade surplus with the United States, could join only on "commercial terms".
The United States, which may be reserving any concessions on WTO for a summit meeting between the US and China in 1997, was supported by Canada.
The failure of the EU to make headway on the issue drew a sharp retort from Beijing, where Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mr Shen Guofang, said: "These obstacles are mainly due to political reasons and the excessive demands placed on China."
The WTO, established on January 1st, 1995, covers commercial and trade policies in goods, services and "trade in ideas" or intellectual property. It contains 29 legal strictures covering everything from agriculture to textiles and clothing and aims to reduce tariffs across the board, promote fair competition and trade without discrimination.
China faces a host of changes in its economic regime to comply with WTO rules. It wants to join the world body without fulfilling all the accession conditions on the grounds that it is still a developing country.
The EU Commission has suggested that China could join the WTO on the basis of a major cut in tariffs and an end to Beijing's monopoly on external trade and tighter protection of intellectual property.
Russia's deputy Prime Minister, Mr Oleg Davydov, said yesterday he expected his country to gain admission to the WTO by the end of this year. In contrast to China, Russia has fulfilled almost all the conditions required.