EU/CHINA: EU UNDER PRESSURE TO FOLLOW CHINA'S DEAL WITH US.

The European Commission has been keen to emphasise that despite the significance of the US-China deal, the EU's own concerns would now have to be met before China could be sure of joining the WTO. European Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy, speaking at the EU's General Affairs Council in Brussels on November 15, cautiously welcomed the agreement, although he was still waiting for details from both sides.Officials have also stressed that the process takes longer than just securing bilateral deals - it is out of the question, for example, that China could join before the WTO begins its Ministerial meeting in Seattle, on November 30. But until China becomes a WTO member - and it could still take months - it will be granted observer status at the Seattle talks. "The fact that the United States and China have concluded a deal is an important step", a European Commission spokesman said. "However, for China to enter the WTO, equivalent deals with Europe and with Canada would have to be finalised." He said the US and the EU shared about 80% of the same objectives on China's WTO membership terms, but the outstanding 20% of trade concerns were special to the EU and would have to be dealt with in separate talks. These cover banking, distribution, life insurance, telecommunications and tariffs on machinery: after three days of talks in Geneva in late October, Commission's negotiator Karl Falkenberg said China's offers on opening up these industries still fell short of what the EU wanted. The European demands include calls for China to open its market further in banking, telecommunications markets, and distribution, and loosen controls on foreign investment in the electronics.Details of deal.Under the agreement with the US, China will reduce average import duties to 17% from 22.1% (or by an average 23%) after WTO entry. China would also allow 49% foreign ownership in telecommunications firms immediately, rising to 50% after two years. In return for China rolling back its trade barriers, US President Bill Clinton must persuade the Republican-led Congress to grant Beijing favourable access to US markets - so-called permanent normal trade relations (NTR) status. Permanent NTR, formerly known as most-favoured nation (MFN) status, would guarantee Chinese goods the same low-tariff access to US markets as products from nearly every other nation.The deal also says:* Foreign banks in China will be allowed to do business with Chinese companies two years after entry...