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.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2