Negotiators met yesterday to try to settle final problems over admitting China to the WTO amid concerns a pivotal meeting set for November may be postponed in the wake of the terrorist attacks in the US.
Taiwan and China are expected to receive approval to join at the meeting in Doha, Qatar, and would likely see dashed their current hopes of entry in early 2002 if the meeting was postponed.
Stunned US officials attending yesterday's informal discussions said, "we aren't going to be very active today [Wednesday] because of the circumstances."
The US mission in Geneva remained open yesterday with a skeleton staff.
Diplomats have a self-imposed deadline of Thursday for completing works on the terms of China's membership, but the attacks have left them unsure whether US negotiators will be able to get the guidance they need from Washington.
Earlier yesterday, the WTO announced that it was postponing meetings planned for later in the day and Friday to study US policies on international trade. The meetings were unrelated to the China talks but had been scheduled for almost a year.
Tuesday's first meeting on China's membership was cut short as US officials rushed away to phone home or watch television images of the devastation.
Both China and Taiwan have working party meetings slated for today and tomorrow.
But speculation was strong among WTO delegations that November's ministerial meeting in Doha, Qatar would be a casualty of the events in the US.
"I just cannot see it [Doha] going ahead in these circumstances," said one diplomat, who declined to be identified. "None of us want to give comfort to terrorists, but I sense the will is not there."
Diplomats said the fact that US officials were already linking Tuesday's horror in New York and Washington with Islamic fundamentalists meant any international meeting in the Middle East must inevitably be put in doubt.
"If the United States hits out at a target in the region in response to this tragedy, it would inevitably raise tension in an already very tense area to fever-pitch," said one.
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