Director-General Mike Moore has welcomed the substantial progress made by WTO member governments in their efforts to complete work on the entry of China.
He said the progress made by the Working Party on China's accession this week has improved the prospects for a decision on China's entry this November at the Fourth Ministerial Conference in Doha, Qatar.
"The very good work this week by member governments and Working Party Chairman Pierre-Louis Girard has brought us one significant step closer to attaining that objective," Moore said. "In any event, completion of the Working-Party process will clearly constitute a major milestone."
The 16th meeting of the Working Party on China's accession began on June 28. Following a week of intense negotiations, the Working Party reached agreement in important areas of its work.
Moore urged member governments to use the time available before the next Working Party meeting during the week of July 16 to resolve all remaining differences and agree on the documents that must be completed before the Working Party can recommend China's accession to ministers.
"We are now very close, but we are not there yet. I urge governments to make every effort to conclude these negotiations as quickly as possible," Moore said.
The next Working Party meeting is scheduled for the week of July 16.
The Working Party Chairman Girard told member governments that he expected that meeting to focus on comprehensive drafts of the Working Party Report and the Protocol of Accession.
Mexico has yet to complete its own negotiations with China on how their future trade, but Mexican sources confirmed their country would not bloc an overall accord.
If all goes well, a new session of the working party in mid-September would formally endorse an entry package, leaving parliaments of WTO countries two months to ratify before Doha.
Japan welcomed the breakthrough on China's entry to the world body.
In a statement issued in Tokyo, Japan's Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Takeo Hiranuma said China's WTO membership would help strengthen the world's free trading system.
"Rules of law would be established in trade ties between Japanand China, and that would bring about large benefits to the two countries," said Hiranuma, who is on a week-long Middle East tour.
Hiranuma also expressed the hope that Beijing's entry to the WTO would help resolve trade disputes between China and Japan.
Talks between the two countries to settle their trade disputes ended on Wednesday without yields.
(Xinhua News Agency June 6, 2001)
