Chinese and World Trade Organisation negotiators are poised to begin fresh talks in the hope of overcoming the remaining hurdles to Beijing's admission.
The working party negotiating the terms for China's entry is scheduled to meet in Geneva from Monday to Friday, less than two weeks after its last session.
Beijing's 15-year quest to join the WTO and its predecessor, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (Gatt), moved closer to conclusion when diplomats announced significant progress had been made on most outstanding issues at the previous talks, which ended on July 4.
Diplomats said the momentum could lead to WTO ministers formally approving China's entry at a November conference in Doha, Qatar, and pave the way for fully fledged membership by early next year.
China's chief trade negotiator, Long Yongtu, stayed in Geneva after the last session to help prepare for this week's working party meeting and to address problems holding up a bilateral deal with Mexico.
China and WTO members reached "substantial and positive" agreements on a large number of outstanding issues at the last meeting, said Pierre-Louis Girard, chairman of the WTO working party.
He said members could envisage wrapping up the process "in what I hope to be in the very near future".
Mr Long said at the last meeting that it was still not time to celebrate, but he hoped the upcoming session could conclude preparation of the entry package.
Two problems remain unresolved. The first is disagreement between the United States and the European Union over the future level of Chinese ownership in insurance firms. The second was tariff-rate quotas, Mr Girard said.
Multilaterally agreed texts have been completed in areas including trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights, technical barriers to trade and a transitional review mechanism.
A problem over agriculture, which cropped up when some developing countries became worried about the implications of a Sino-US deal on farming subsidies, was ironed out at the last moment.
EU negotiator Karl Falkenberg said: "We hope it will lead us to have an opportunity to take the formal decision about China's accession at the ministerial meeting at Doha."
After his return to Washington, Assistant US Trade Representative Jeffrey Bader said the process could finish this year, but it was primarily up to China.
(Chinadaily.com.cn 07/16/2001)
