Document: Joint EU-China statement – EU and Chinese negotiators make progress on Chinese accession to the World Trade Organisation

The European Commission and the Chinese government ended on 26.1.00 a two and a half day negotiating session on the terms of China's accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The Chinese team was led by Long Yongtu, Vice-Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Co-operation; the Commission's chief negotiator was Mr Hans-Friedrich Beseler, Director-General for Trade.

Discussions covered outstanding issues on market access in the fields of industrial goods, such as tariffs and the phasing out of quotas, and agricultural goods (tariffs and tariff-rate quotas). A full day was also devoted to the services sector, including negotiations on such key sectors as telecommunications, financial services (banking, insurance and securities), brokerage, distribution, tourism and professional services (lawyers and accountants). They also covered certain cross-sectoral issues, including trade-related investment measures, state trading and national treatment issues.

• Primary Source

http://ec.europa.eu/comm/trade/issues/bilateral/countries/china/index_en.htm http://ec.europa.eu/comm/trade/issues/bilateral/countries/china/index_en.htm

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