WTO member countries agreed in Geneva on Friday to hold a final session of talks in September to clear the way for China to join the body by early next year, a decade and a half after it first applied.
Taiwan is expected to be able to join the trade body immediately following China's accession.
Pierre-Louis Girard, the Swiss chairman of the WTO working party on China's accession, said the latest round of talks which ended on Friday had allowed the current 141 members "to virtually complete our consideration and approval" of an entry package.
Delegations should plan for a final session in the week of Sept. 10, he told negotiators on Friday.
If this schedule was kept, Girard said, ministers from all the WTO countries could formally approve the entry terms when they gather in Doha, Qatar, from Nov. 9 to 13.
Diplomats said that would enable China and Taiwan to become members in the first quarter of next year.
Taiwan's negotiations were completed over a year ago, but there is an informal accord within the WTO that it can be admitted only after China.
The wrap-up of the month-long push that all but finalized the texts of China's admission accords was, however, soured by a squabble over insurance issues in which China and the EU were lined up against the US.
The New York-based insurance company American International Group (AIG), which is already operating in China and has the right to 100 percent ownership of its operations. But under the deal outlining China's WTO membership, new companies entering the Chinese life insurance market would have to be 50 percent Chinese owned.
The question is whether new AIG branches opened in China in future will be considered as new entities or an extension of the headquarters and therefore entitled to 100 percent US ownership.
The US argues a new branch should not be considered a new entity but the EU says any privilege enjoyed by AIG should be extended to all WTO members.
AIG has called on the US administration to stand firm on the issue.
In a written statement published on Thursday, the company said trade initiatives should be about "opening markets not turning back the clock."
"AIG has every confidence that the Bush administration will ensure that the important principle of safeguarding acquired rights is preserved in China's final WTO accession agreement," the statement said.
But envoys close to the negotiations said they did not see the outstanding issue as likely to delay Girard's autumn scenario.
"I am very confident we can find a way out," China's chief negotiator Long Yongtu (
Long described AIG as "a very friendly company to China" and said that patience and new consultations were needed on the issue.
Besides the insurance wrangle, there are three other market access issues still outstanding, Girard said. These relate to Thailand, Turkey and Mexico. Mexico still has to finalize a bilateral deal with China.
"But I don't foresee any problem in settling these issues," Girard said.
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