Washington, Beijing turn focus on trade
Washington, Beijing turn focus on trade
By Andrew Browne
SYDNEY (Reuters): With Chinese President Jiang Zemin
signaling a turnaround in troubled ties with the United States,
the two sides are preparing a last-ditch effort to secure
Beijing's entry to the World Trade Organization (WTO) this year.
A meeting between Jiang and U.S. President Bill Clinton in New
Zealand on Saturday will give a top-level kick to the
negotiations that were broken off by a furious Beijing in May
after the U.S. bombing of China's Belgrade embassy.
But Clinton and Jiang are not likely to get involved in
details, leaving that to senior aides attending the Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Auckland, and to lower-level
negotiators and sectoral trade experts who will take over in the
next few weeks.
Already the public maneuvering has begun.
Jiang insisted during a visit to Australia on Wednesday that
the obstacle to China's entry to the WTO was the U.S. Congress,
and the ball was now in the U.S. court.
U.S. trade officials are equally insistent the burden is on
China to break the deadlock.
Jiang portrayed Beijing's WTO bid as a victim of a U.S.
political process beyond the control of Clinton, who he described
as "my good friend".
And he told reporters that having missed a good opportunity to
wrap up a deal by accepting an offer made in April by Premier Zhu
Rongji "the prospect of the WTO question will be to a large
extent dependent on the American side".
Zhu dangled the prospect of unprecedented access in
agriculture, telecommunications and services. But Clinton balked
because it did not go far enough on banking and financial
services, or offer adequate protection against surges in Chinese
exports, including steel and textiles.
They are declaring their aim is not to claw back the
concessions made by Zhu, but to use them as a starting point.
"That package has never been taken off the table, and we would
expect to essentially pick up where we left off," said U.S. Trade
Representative Charlene Barshefsky, speaking to reporters at the
APEC meeting.
U.S. Commerce Secretary William Daley told Reuters in Auckland
that to get a deal through Congress China would have to improve
on the Zhu position.
If China refused "it would be very difficult to expect that
deal would survive", he said.
U.S. trade officials, who embarrassed Zhu by publishing the
full details of his offer, have previously suggested the Clinton
administration would now accept them more or less unchanged.
But China disputes the published details, saying they are
exaggerated. And it has rowed back on a key concession allowing
foreign companies up to 50 percent ownership of Chinese
telecommunications firms.
If anything, the mood in the Republican-controlled Congress is
more anti-China now than in April when Zhu visited, aggravated by
accusations of Chinese nuclear spying and anti-U.S. protests in
Beijing that followed the bombing.
Sentiment is likely to sour further as the presidential
election campaign heats up.
And while Jiang signaled on Wednesday that China was ready to
move beyond the embassy bombing tragedy and patch up relations
with the United States, key issues still divide the world's most
powerful and its most populous nation.
Taiwan is the biggest potential flash-point, and Taiwan
President Lee Teng-hui has lit a slow-burning fuse by declaring
that the island will only deal with Beijing as sovereign equals
on a "special state-to-state basis". China regards Taiwan as a
renegade province.
For U.S. businesses frustrated by meager results obtained from
mighty efforts in the China market, a WTO market-opening deal is
crucial. Failure could lead to a further fall-off in foreign
investment in China.
China arguably has most to lose if a deal cannot be patched
together in the next few weeks in time for China to join before a
new round of global trade talks begin in Seattle in November.
At stake is the reform of ailing state-owned enterprises,
which are unlikely to be shaken into change without the threat of
foreign competition.