Washington, 18/04/2001 (Agence Europe) - The US Administration has denied the existence of an agreement with Beijing on the agricultural section of China's negotiations for accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Trade Representative Robert Zoellick pointed out that the announcement and the information divulged by the Vice-President of the Council for China-US affairs, John Foarde, are "not exact". "We were surprised to see this information as nothing new has happened", said his spokesman.
Mr Foarde had apparently announced that a Chinese-American agreement had been reached during recent discussions between Mr Zoellick and his Chinese counterpart, Long Yongtu, on the agricultural chapter, which is one of the main stumbling blocks in negotiations in Geneva, together with that on insurance services. Mr Foarde will not budge an inch: "When Deputy Minister Long was in Washington three weeks ago, I believe that he and Mr Zoellick reached an agreement after about two weeks of negotiations on a draft compromise presented by the United States", declared AFP. The German economic daily Handelsblatt also mentioned this agreement, on Tuesday, affirming that it had been kept secret because of the Chinese-American crisis over the spy plane. According to the paper's sources, Beijing, which is requesting developing country status at the WTO, would thus have been able to ceiling its subsidies at 7-8% of the prices of farm products, half-way between the 10% allowed for LDCs and the 5% limit for industrialised countries.
EUROPE recalls that the working group within which multilateral negotiations on accession by China are taking place has not met since February and has still not fixed a date for resuming talks. We also recall that, failing approval from Geneva before 3 June, the Bush Administration may have to battle with the Congress for a one year extension of the legislation allowing China to benefit from normal permanent trade relations.