China blasts Washington as Kantor begins visit

China blasts Washington as Kantor begins visit

BEIJING (AFP): Chinese Foreign Trade Minister Wu Yi accused Washington yesterday of failing to meet its obligations under a 1992 market access agreement, saying Beijing was entitled to "take corresponding actions."

Wu's comments to journalists came as her guest, U.S. Trade Representative Mickey Kantor, began meetings here with Chinese officials ahead of signing an eleventh-hour Sino-U.S. agreement on copyrights reached late last month, averting the launch of trade war.

The issues of market access and China's stalled bid to join the World Trade Organization (WTO) are expected to be among the main focuses of Kantor's talks.

Since the 1992 signing of the Sino-U.S. market access memorandum of understanding, "the Chinese side has been very seriously implementing the obligations that it undertook in the agreement," said Wu.

But, she added, Washington has failed to meet its "most important commitment" to increase support for China's application to rejoin the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which gave way to the WTO on Jan. 1.

"Very regretfully ... when the negotiations concerning China's GATT resumption reached the critical moment, the U.S. side took the lead to block that process. As a result, China failed to become a GATT member," the trade minister said.

Citing a Chinese saying that "courtesy demands reciprocity," Wu said the US failure to honor its commitments meant "the Chinese side is entitled to express its displeasure and ... to take corresponding actions." She did not elaborate on what actions were being considered.

Kantor, who arrived here late Friday for a three-day visit, earlier accused China of failing to meet the terms of the memorandum of understanding, under which Beijing promised to improve market access for US computers, agricultural products and capital by the end of 1994.

A recent letter from Wu to Kantor on the subject "was not completely sufficient to meet our concerns," he said.

He made clear that, while the copyright agreement should help China's WTO application, Beijing still needed to do more to open its markets before the United States could support its admission.

Washington also opposes Beijing's demands to be admitted with developing country status.

On the copyright issue, Wu said that "the Chinese government's resolution to combat piracy and infringement is very determined and we have come up with very detailed action plans to that effect," pointing to a State Council order this week demanding improved protection.

The trade minister was responding to a question by a journalist who in recent days bought a disc carrying US$20,000 worth of software for 200 yuan ($24) from a shop, in Beijing's northwestern computer district, that four weeks ago had been closed down.

"China will further improve the laws and regulations concerning IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) protection," while intensifying enforcement and using "judicial and administrative channels to severely punish piracy," she said, pledging to seriously look into the case raised by the journalist and punish the company.

The foreign trade minister disputed U.S. figures giving China a $28.9 billion surplus a bilateral trade last year as "ridiculous."

In 1994, bilateral trade was worth $35.4 billion, and "China indeed had a trade surplus, but that surplus was not very big," she said.

The United States, which calculates last year's total trade volume at $46.8 billion, includes Chinese reexports through Hong Kong, while Beijing does not.

Kantor met yesterday morning with Minister of Post and Telecommunications Wu Jichuan and officials from the State Planning Commission, a U.S. embassy spokeswoman said, adding he would attend a welcoming dinner hosted by Wu after the copyright signing ceremony.