P.M. BRIEFING : GATT Delays Action on China Bid
GENEVA — A GATT meeting to consider a bid by China to join the 96-nation trade forum has been postponed “because of difficulties in having meaningful discussions in present circumstances,” a GATT spokesman said today.
A special working party which has been studying China’s application since its submission three years ago, was scheduled to meet here next week to discuss the terms of a draft document for Beijing’s possible accession to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.
Following informal consultations among delegations and with China’s agreement it was decided to put off the meeting until a date to be announced later, said spokesman David Woods.
He said the postponement was not intended as a sanction against China because of last month’s crushing of pro-democracy demonstrations there.
China was a founding member of GATT in 1948, but quit two years later after the present Communist authorities ousted the Nationalists from power.
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