WASHINGTON-China reportedly is backpedaling on market-opening telecom trade commitments that the Clinton administration believed were agreed to during Premier Zhu Rongji’s visit here recently.
Robert Cassidy, assistant U.S. trade representative, was scheduled to leave Beijing Sunday after trade talks last week with his Chinese counterpart, Long Yongtu. The trip was arranged in the aftermath of President Clinton’s decision against embracing China’s entry into the World Trade Organization at this time. The rejection left Zhu angry and bitter, and appears to have made him vulnerable to political attack back in China.
China, according Friday’s Wall Street Journal, told U.S. officials it never agreed to legalize a type of investment, known as ‘China-China-foreign,’ that overseas firms have employed to get around laws that ban foreign control of telecom partnerships in China.
A USTR spokesman could not be reached for comment.
According to the White House, China agreed to allow 49-percent foreign ownership in all telecom services and permit 51-percent foreign ownership of paging and value-added services in four years. But the Wall Street Journal said U.S. trade negotiators believe there is a catch to the foreign-ownership concession requiring a two-thirds vote on major decisions.
