Bush being elected U.S. President last January has cast doubt over China's smooth entry into World Trade Organization (WTO), with agricultural subsidy and opening of insurance business that remain as critical, said Supachai Panitchpakdi, incoming WTO Director-General when addressing the business circle of Hong Kong on Tuesday, March 27.
China's steps towards WTO have slowed down recently, he says. Although there are still hopes of accession before the Ministerial Conference in November, at least China's formal entry has to wait until the fourth quarter. While before this he once predicted in February China might enter into WTO in spring, but a recent tour to Washington had changed his mind.
A new round of PNTR debate may be triggered among US politicians if China is not able to join WTO before May. Yet Supachai disclosed that the US side had told him "China's WTO entry is still going smoothly", so there is no need for too much worry. Supachai refused to tell who uttered the sentence, while his personal opinion is that the problem is as urgent as it was last year and China must win support from other WTO members through gap-narrowing negotiations.
Supachai expressed his understanding on China's stance on agricultural subsidy. China hopes to join WTO as a developing instead of a developed country. The maximum limit of trade subsidy for developing countries is 10 percent of agricultural product exports, while the figure merely stands at 5 percent for developed countries. China's current figure is only 2 percent so it hopes to obtain the right reserved for developing countries to help the hundreds of millions of farmers who may suffer from a loss after WTO. But disputes remain on whether China can enter WTO as a developing country.
(People’s Daily 03/30/2001)
