| China will resume talks shortly with the European Union on
joining the World Trade Organization (WTO), the EU ambassador in China said Tuesday. "I am happy to announce that the negotiations will reconvene very
shortly," EU envoy Endymion Wilkinson told a World Economic Forum conference in
Beijing.
He added that he hoped the next round of talks would lead to an
agreement on China's membership of the world trade body.
"We are winding down to what we think will be the final
session," he said.
"A deal is within reach, but important issues remain to be
solved."
Wilkinson declined to say when or where the next round of negotiations
would take place.
Pascal Lamy, the EU's top trade negotiator who took part in the last
round of talks in Beijing in March, said last week that he was ready to return to the
Chinese capital for further discussions.
The European Union is the largest of China's trading partners yet to
conclude a bilateral agreement that would open the way for China to accede to the WTO and
its rules-based trading regime.
(Agencies)
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