China World Trade Talks May Take Years, U.S. Says

BEIJING —  The Clinton Administration indicated Tuesday that China will not be admitted to the world trading system any time soon because it refuses to accept key concessions to bring its economic practices in line with other members of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.

“I’m a negotiator, so I never use the word ‘deadlock,’ ” Assistant U.S. Trade Representative Douglas Newkirk said after concluding two days of talks here on conditions under which China might be granted GATT membership. “We’ve made some progress. We have a great deal more to make. . . . We’re a long way from completing the negotiations.”

Washington is asking Beijing to make a commitment to move to a fully market-priced economic system, he said. And it wants China to agree that until that is achieved, other GATT members can rely on “a safeguard system that protects (them) against surges” in Chinese state-subsidized exports. Details of such safeguards were not even discussed during this round of talks “because they don’t accept the two points,” Newkirk said.

GATT, which regulates most of the world’s trade, promotes the lowering of trade barriers. China already is the 11th-biggest trading nation, and GATT membership could open its huge market wider to businesses in other countries.

“If they want to agree to very tough obligations, we can do it very quickly,” Newkirk said. “But if they want to draw the process out by talking about the virtues of a ‘socialist market economy,’ it’s going to take a long time. I’m going to be retired in seven years, and I’m not sure that I’m going to be able to wrap it up at the current pace.”

A round of multilateral GATT talks is due to start March 15 in Geneva to discuss China’s membership bid. The talks here were preparation for that meeting.

The fundamental problem with China’s application, Newkirk said, is that, despite the market-oriented reforms of the past 14 years, the Chinese economy simply is not the kind for which GATT was designed.

China’s leaders have said that they want to build a “socialist market economy.” A key element is that many highly autonomous government-owned enterprises would compete.