China-EU trade talks fail again

BEIJING, MARCH 31: Market opening talks between China and the European Union ended Friday with no agreement, an EU statement said, dealing...

BEIJING, MARCH 31: Market opening talks between China and the European Union ended Friday with no agreement, an EU statement said, dealing a blow to Beijing’s hopes of joining the World Trade Organisation this year.

The EU sought to put the best light on the failure of four days of discussions, insisting it was not disappointed and progress had been made.

Nevertheless, EU trade commissioner Pascal Lamy had joined talks to provide the high-level political push needed to drive through an agreement bogged down by technical disputes over access to China’s huge markets in telecommunications and financial services, including insurance.

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No date was set for the negotiations to resume, although Beijing said Lamy was welcome to return for more talks of terms of accession to the body which sets global trading rules.

Beijing’s team was led by Trade Minister Shi Guangsheng.

The previous several rounds of talks were held at a working level.

The EU statement quoted Lamy as saying the talks “were held in a constructive spirit with positive movement on both sides resulting in a certain narrowing of difference on the outstanding issues under negotiation”.

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But he said: “Conclusion of a bilateral agreement was notpossible at this stage. We are hopeful we will be able to finalise a deal in the coming period.”

The EU is the most important of 10 WTO members yet to sign market access agreements with Beijing needed for China to join the 135-member body.

China, which says it expects to join the WTO this year, put a similarly rosy gloss on the failure.

A Trade Ministry statement described the talks as “Positive, constructive and fruitful”.

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“Both sides hope to reach agreement as soon as possible, and the negotiations will continue in the future,” it said.

Shi welcomed Lamy to return to Beijing, the Chinese statement said.

Lamy indicated that the EU had been ready to compromise, although he did not pinpoint the areas of disagreements.

The previous round of talks faltered after the EU insisted on 51 per cent foreign ownership of Chinese mobile telecommunications networks.

“The EU has shown flexbility,” Lamy said.

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“A final package should be balanced taking due account of the specificity of the important trading relationship between the EU and China,” he said.

The statement quoted him as saying he would report back to the 15 EU members, “to assess how best to approach a future round of negotiations for which a date has yet to be set.”

EU spokesman Anthony Gooch said: “we’ve made progress this weekand; we are hopeful that we will be able to finalise a deal in the coming period.”

“We don’t have a reason to be disappointed. We’ve made progress,” he added.

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The United States signed an agreement in November last year.

A similar deadlock between US trade representative Charlene Barshefsky and Shi was broken by the personal intervention of Chinese premier Zhu Rongji.

Asked if he thought Chinese leaders were not giving EU talks the same high-level commitment that secured the US deal, Gooch said: “We don’t feel that there’s any discrimination in terms of treatment that is being given to Europe with respect to other partners.”