Brussels, 09/03/2000 (Agence Europe) - European Commissioner Pascal Lamy will be leaving for Beijing on 27 March in the hope of finalising in the following days the bilateral negotiations aimed at enabling China to become a member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). His spokesman Anthony Gooch, visibly under orders not to say more, did state that the Union's top trade policy official expected to negotiate directly the outstanding points, while the entire team (i.e. some 20 specialists) led by Director General Hans-Friedrich Beseler would accompany him to put the finishing touches on the technical talks, suspended indefinitely on 24 February last. It will be recalled that just a few days ago (see EUROPE of 2 March), Mr Lamy insisted on the fact that he would only go to Beijing "if the Chinese give a sign that an agreement is in sight". "Draw your own conclusions", Mr Gooch told journalists who asked about progress made since then.