Not in a day

Perhaps it was never realistic to expect Beijing and Washington to agree on terms for China's entry into the World Trade Organization before the two sides' self-imposed deadline of the end of this month.

A recent editorial in the Washington Post argued that Beijing could be a destructive force within the WTO and there was a strong case for delaying entry.

Opposition also remains strong in Congress, which would have to approve a permanent extension of China's trade privileges as part of any agreement.

This means that, if these talks have failed, it will be hard to reach agreement on China's entry until after next November's poll.

But that may be what some in Beijing want. The situation has deteriorated a long way since April, when Premier Zhu Rongji offered unprecedented tariff cuts and access for foreign companies to tightly guarded markets, such as agriculture and telecommunications.

Zhu has been weakened, not least by the U.S. publishing his earlier list of concessions, and no longer has control over the WTO talks. Conservative economists and academics now speak out strongly against making sweeping concessions to secure China's entry.

This growth in protectionist sentiment is unfortunate and risks harming the mainland's development. One of the great benefits of China's desire to join the WTO was that it created a climate that made it easier for Premier Zhu and others to push for tough economic reforms that might otherwise have proved politically more difficult.

This momentum must not be allowed to slow, even if the prospect of entry appears to have receded until after the U.S. presidential elections. China will only be able to join the WTO if it continues to move toward greater openness. Anything that halts or reverses this process will only harm Beijing's interests.

-- The South China Morning Post, Hong Kong