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.