WASHINGTON-China, the world’s largest potential wireless export market, is on the verge of entering the World Trade Organization as officials wrap up negotiations to culminate a process that has been 15 years in the making.
WTO officials last week said talks on China’s application for membership in the Geneva-based global trade body had progressed to the point where a final decision could be made at a Nov. 4 ministerial meeting in Doha, Qatar.
Negotiations on China’s accession to the 141-member WTO-which the organization described as intense and successful insofar as securing agreements in key areas while isolating remaining differences-are set to resume this week.
On Tuesday, meanwhile, the House Ways and Means trade subcommittee plans to hold a hearing on renewing normal trade relations with China. Delays encountered by China in entering WTO membership made it necessary for President Bush and Congress again to address a China trade issue that was supposedly put to rest last summer.
While Congress is expected to approve NTR for China, debate is expected to be heated because of U.S.-Sino disagreements over human rights, Taiwan, the downing of a U.S. spy plane, detention of American scholars in China, the $80 billion U.S. trade deficit with China and other issues.
“We are very close, but we are not there yet. I urge governments to make every effort to conclude these negotiations as quickly as possible,” said Mike Moore, director general of the WTO.
China appears to be offering concessions on trade and on other flash points recently as the International Olympic Committee moves closer to deciding whether to consider China’s bid to host the 2008 Olympics.
China, with its 1.3 billion people and inadequate telecom infrastructure, is the most sought after global market for wireless firms here and abroad.
A recently signed $1.5 billion contract between China Unicom and several U.S. CDMA equipment suppliers, offers but a glimpse at what the Chinese market has to offer in business terms. While individual contracts went to Lucent Technologies Inc., Motorola Inc., Nortel Networks and L.M. Ericsson, the big winner was Qualcomm Inc., a San Diego-based CDMA technology developer.
Separately, Motorola alone has won more than $500 million in equipment contracts awarded by China Mobile, the nation’s top wireless phone operator. The contracts cover nine provinces and municipalities in China.
China Unicom, the No. 2 mobile-phone carrier in China with 27 percent of the nation’s 111 million subscribers, is building a major CDMA mobile phone network to supplement its existing GSM system.
At a press briefing here last week with U.S. wireless suppliers, China Unicom Vice President Lu Jianguo said CDMA technology was chosen because it makes efficient use of the airwaves and because there is not sufficient spectrum for GSM operations.
Indeed, China and other emerging markets are becoming major battlegrounds for competition between 3G technologies cdma2000, championed by Qualcomm and Lucent, and W-CDMA, a technology promoted in Europe and elsewhere by Finland’s Nokia Corp. and Sweden’s Ericsson.
Despite the ups and downs in U.S.-Sino relations and Beijing’s sometimes unpredictability, U.S. wireless executives said they are confident about future business dealings in China. The influx of more foreign exports represents a threat to state-run businesses, a reality that has forced the Chinese government to push for alliances between foreign wireless firms and local businesses.
While government and industry leaders hailed the mobile-phone contracts between the two countries, Robert Kapp, president of the U.S.-China Business Council, conceded, “Business alone cannot sustain … U.S.-China engagement.” If other components of the relationship fail, he said, “Business cannot go on as usual.”
