| Abstract | The latest round of talks at the World Trade Organization (WTO) have produced the clearest signs yet that China is making a major effort to attain membership by early 1998. Sir Leon Brittan, the European Union's Trade Commissioner, says that, "with hard work" the remaining obstacles to Chinese membership can be resolved by the end of 1997. But Washington is less sanguine. Although the Chinese delegation made what most agreed were major concessions at the last round of talks in March 1997, Washington is still refusing to say more than that "progress has been made". The three major players -- China, the United States (US) and the European Union (EU) -- will engage in lengthy bilateral talks in Beijing, Washington and Brussels before the talks resume in Geneva in May 1997. |
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