U.S. Trade Official Says China Will Honor Its Pledge to Open Markets

Hoping to speed up stalled negotiations on China’s accession to the World Trade Organization, U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky met with Chinese officials in Beijing on Thursday and said she received assurances that China will honor its commitments to open its markets.

After talks with Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji, Barshefsky told reporters that “the most significant aspect of the meeting with Premier Zhu was his emphatic, absolute . . . declaration that China is not and will not back away from its bilateral commitments with the U.S. or with any other trading partners.”

Barshefsky downplayed delays and haggling over the details of China’s accession, calling them “nothing insurmountable.”

China has already reached bilateral agreements with the U.S., Europe and most of its major trading partners, promising to lower import tariffs and open to foreign competition key sections of the economy.

The final step entails multilateral negotiations in Geneva to agree on a protocol containing the terms of China’s accession to the group.

Troubles began surfacing when European countries said China wasn’t honoring agreements to open its insurance markets. In the China-European Union accord signed in May, China agreed to license seven EU insurers, but has licensed only two.

“Are the Chinese backing away from their commitments, or are the Europeans stretching them?” asked Nicholas Lardy, an expert on the Chinese economy at Washington-based Brookings Institution.