Brussels, 19/02/2001 (Agence Europe) - In Hong Kong where he was closing, on Monday, a five day tour in Asia, Commissioner Pascal Lamy felt that accession by China to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) could take place by next summer, at the same time as that of Taiwan and a few months before the launch of the new round of multilateral negotiations in Qatar.
For Mr Lamy the Chinese accession process is on the verge of being completed. Already last month, he said, the success was "a heart beat away, but the negotiations finally stumbled over a small number of issues including agriculture and services", despite the compromise proposed by the Union. In his opinion, "a little good will from both sides" would have sufficed to "overcome the last obstacles and reach the finishing line as of the next session in Geneva, possibly in March". The entry, previously programmed for the summer, "will be clearly a good thing", both for China, the Union , the WTO as an organisation and, no doubt also, for the promotion of human rights in the country and the development of relations with Taiwan, underlined Mr Lamy. Though once a member, he recalled, Beijing will still have to translate "into daily practice", its undertakings for transparency, non-discrimination, administrative efficiency, etc. (The EU already freed EUR 24 million to help and is considering more for the future) and to show itself as "active, in the formulation of targets in the next round and offer concessions, as done by the other WTO members".
Also if the prospects for the launch of the round where "not so good" recently, the Commission today sees "a change in mood", an impression that his counterpart from Hong Kong, Brian Chau, says he shares. "People are more positive over this round", indicated Mr Lamy, while raising the growing concerns in the face of the economic slowdown and the feelings felt by some of loosing control over the regional dynamic. "In general, we are increasing numerous to recognise that we will have to act now to strengthen the WTO and show our faith in the system that we support for a half century", he felt. Though, he reaffirmed, without a wide ranging agenda, which allows to "remodel the system to take on the challenges, it will loss steam", leaving the road clear to a possible protectionism and the regional option - "the simplicity, but not necessarily the best approach" moreover, "we risk leaving the WTO to reduce itself to a World Trade Tribunal where we accept the reign of a horde of lawyers and plaintiffs". Also to reaffirm the need to target "something of qualitatively different to previous rounds, an agenda that covers the "development" dimension of the foreground (by "liberalising there where the LDC have a comparative advantage, including in agriculture and textiles) and modernise the register of commercial rules (investment, competition and trade facilitation), while proving that the WTO and its environmental aims can "mutually support each other". The same applies to health and consumer safety "where we must show our voters that the governments still have a margin for action to protect public interests". "I think, he said, that the best way to appease the fears (of ecological protectionism) is to clarify what the WTO allows in the environmental field, so that the governmental authorities do not to use the environment as a barrier to trade".