GENEVA A formal meeting to clear final barriers to China's bid to join the World Trade Organization has been rescheduled to November 6, a WTO spokesman said on Monday.
The spokesman said the Geneva meeting, originally scheduled for November 2, would take place without Swiss Chairman Pierre-Louis Girard, who is recovering in hospital following a road accident last Thursday. His condition is not life-threatening.
China's Vice Minister of Foreign Trade and Chief WTO Negotiator, Long Yongtu, who will head Beijing's team to the Geneva talks, is expected to hold bilateral consultations with WTO member states on the sidelines of the formal meetings.
The last round of multilateral talks in Geneva in September made scant progress, prompting U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky and European Union Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy to visit China to get negotiations back on track.
The flying visits resolved most bilateral snags that had worried the United States and the European Union but much work remained at the multilateral level, which could push China's entry beyond the end of this year, diplomats said.
The EU announced on Friday it had resolved its remaining bilateral disagreements with China over the access by European firms to its insurance and retail markets.
China must seal a bilateral deal with one country, Mexico, and complete multilateral accession procedures before entering the world trade club.
(Reuter)