U.S., China Restart Trade Negotiations

U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky met in Beijing with a team of Chinese officials led by Foreign Trade Minister Shi Guangsheng for the first day of last-ditch talks to salvage China’s bid to join the World Trade Organization before ministers from 134 countries gather in Seattle in three weeks to launch a new round of global trade negotiations. A spokesman for the U.S. side called Wednesday’s meetings “good” and “constructive.” “This shows how positive and serious we are about the negotiations,” Shi said of the new round of U.S.-China talks. China has been trying to gain admittance to the WTO for 13 years.