CHINA - WTO formally approves membership

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WTO formally approves membership of China

By Naomi Koppel, Associated Press, 11/10/2001 11:31

DOHA, Qatar (AP) The World Trade Organization formally invited the world's most populous country, China, to join on Saturday, bringing the once-isolated communist country and its 1.2 billion consumers firmly into the global marketplace.

Trade ministers from almost all the WTO's 142 members unanimously approved China's application for membership, after more 15 years of negotiations.

''The ministerial conference so agrees,'' the chairman, Qatari Minister of Finance, Economy and Trade, Youssef Hussain Kamal, declared, setting off a round of applause.

Addressing the meeting afterward, Chinese Trade Minister Shi Guangsheng said his country will ''abide by WTO rules and honor its commitments while enjoying its rights.''

He added that China supported the WTO's plan to launch a new round of trade liberalization negotiations ''on the basis of full consideration of the interests and reasonable requests of developing countries.''

The approval of China was planned to give the WTO maximum publicity and to ensure that some positive news would come out of the meeting, which has the primary aim of launching the new round.

On Sunday members are expected to admit China's neighbor, Taiwan.

''I believe that as this century unfolds and people look back on this day, they will conclude that in admitting China to the WTO we took a decisive step in strengthening the global economic trading system,'' U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick told the meeting.

He said he believed China could only win from joining the WTO and praised the ''incredible entrepreneurial dynamism of the Chinese people.''

French Finance Minister Laurent Fabius said the WTO could not be called a ''world'' organization without the world's most populous nation.

''When a country as important as China decides to join the WTO, it means there is a new impetus toward the development of trade,'' he told reporters.

''We see China as very good partners ... and I believe their entrance is definitely going to help us,'' Nigerian Trade Minister Mustapha Bello said.

China first applied to join the WTO's predecessor, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, in 1986. Since then it has been negotiating terms of membership with its major trading partners and changing national and local laws to comply with WTO rules.

After a fraught final two years of talks, WTO negotiators finally approved the deal in Geneva in September.

China has made giant strides in opening its markets to become a major player in world trade, and the membership agreement commits it to continue dropping trade barriers over the next few years.

Its membership in the WTO means it will have to open its markets to goods and services from other WTO members, but will also increase its export opportunities a situation that its Asian neighbors especially regard with some apprehension.

China will become a full member of the WTO 30 days after its parliament ratifies the agreement and informs the WTO. That may happen as soon as Sunday.

Terms for the admission of Taiwan were completed 18 months ago, but the final decision was delayed because of the 1992 understanding that China would be the first to join the body that sets rules on international trade.

China and Taiwan split amid civil war in 1949, and Beijing considers the island to be a breakaway province to be reunited with the mainland, by force if necessary.

Beijing at first objected to Taiwan's joining at all. It was finally agreed that Taiwan could join because it is a separate customs territory with different rules on importing goods. It will not be regarded as a country.

Negotiators will now return to trying to agree on the issues for the launch of a new round of trade talks, conscious that they are under the spotlight after the failure of the last attempt, in Seattle in 1999.

Those pushing for a new round said success would send a strong signal of confidence in the world economy and of solidarity in the aftermath of the terror attacks on the United States.

''The world needs signs of hope,'' Zoellick said.

-- Anonymous, November 10, 2001


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