China rejected on Monday calls from the United States and European businesses to join a pact eliminating import duties in the chemical sector as part of a global trade deal. The refusal, voiced by China''s ambassador to the World Trade Organisation, Sun Zhenyu, showed how difficult it would be to reach agreement in one of the most sensitive areas of the WTO''s long-running Doha round.
"We can''t participate in the chemical sector," Sun told a panel discussion at the WTO''s annual public forum. "According to the mandate sectors are voluntary. In this case China is not so voluntary to join that one." G20 leaders reaffirmed last week their goal of concluding the Doha round, now in its eighth year, in 2010.
But the United States has said the current deal does not create enough new opportunities for business. It wants big emerging countries like China, India and Brazil to open their markets more. A favoured option is through deals eliminating or almost eliminating tariffs in individual industrial sectors beyond any overall tariff cuts agreed in a broader agreement.
But China and other big emerging countries are suspicious of efforts to force them to join sector deals, which are voluntary under the terms of the Doha negotiations. Sun linked China''s reluctance to cut tariffs further than it has already offered, or participate in sector deals, to trade measures it faces from its partners, such as this month''s increase in US tariffs on Chinese tyres to block imports.
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