The United States will give China's fledgling World Trade Organization (WTO) interests full consideration during the remainder of the ongoing multilateral trade talks, according to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM).

US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick made the comment on Wednesday while speaking to MOFCOM Minister Lu Fuyuan over the phone. The pair exchanged their opinions on promoting the WTO trade negotiations, the ministry revealed Thursday.

The WTO talks started in Doha in late 2001 and are set to conclude at the end of next year. Sessions are held in different cities around the world.

Zoellick said that during the latest discussions held in Geneva, the US' Ambassador to the WTO, Linnet Deily, said full recognition should be given to the contribution of new members.

During this week's conversation with Lu, Zoellick said the United States hopes to enhance communication and cooperation with China in relation to the WTO and promote positive results from the multilateral talks.

He briefed Lu on the discussions between Organization of Economic and Cooperation and Development members, which were held late last month, and focused on the promotion of the WTO.

The pair also used the opportunity to discuss the US' position on agriculture, non-agricultural products and development issues, among others.

Lu said China was fully supportive of the ongoing WTO dialogue.

He said the talks were known as the "development round" because they were in line with the world trend of peace and development, and that they will achieve positive and balanced results that are beneficial to improving the international economic environment.

The Chinese minister also gave his US counterpart a simple introduction to China's principles and positions on various topics related to the ongoing round.

He said China had strictly carried out its WTO commitments since the start of its membership at the end of 2001 and had made contributions to the development of the multilateral trading system.

The ongoing round should fully recognize new members' contributions and interests while facilitating concrete negotiations, he said.

Lu said China is willing to enhance communication and collaboration with the United States and other members within other international and regional economic and trade frameworks, so as to promote positive developments during the WTO talks.

Chinese officials -- together with WTO chiefs -- are still hopeful a new global trade pact will be possible by the end of next year, despite major stalling in key farm reform talks.

Stable progress has been made in some fields in Geneva, such as services, non-agricultural products' market access and rules and the environment, they said.

But WTO members were supposed to have reached agreement on the guidelines and targets for their negotiations on reducing farming subsidies and tariffs in March. The division of positions was so entrenched that the March 31 deadline could not be met.

The failure comes hard on the heels of the missed end-of-December deadline for an accord on ensuring patent rules do not hamper access to life-saving medicines for poorer countries without pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity.

The 145 members were also supposed to have, but failed to, find agreement by last July on how to help developing countries participate more fully in the global trade body.

(China Daily May 16, 2003)