【英语中国】中国寻求加入《服务贸易协定》谈判

China is seeking to join US-led talks aimed at updating the ageing rules on the $4tn annual trade in global services in a move that is raising concerns in Washington over Beijing’s motives.

Frustrated with a lack of progress in the World Trade Organisation, the US, the EU, and almost two dozen other largely rich-world countries last year launched the talks towards a new Trade in Services Agreement, or TiSA. The talks cover about 70 per cent of global services and are one of the main pillars of President Barack Obama’s trade strategy.

A number of meetings between US and Chinese officials have taken place in recent weeks and it is unclear whether the US would, or could, block China from taking part. China has also held talks with the EU and other participants, according to people close to the negotiations. Chinese officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

US officials are concerned that if China joins the discussions, it may seek to water down the services agreement and they point to China’s actions earlier this summer in the negotiations over an Information Technology Agreement to lower trade barriers to high-tech goods. Those talks were suspended in July after Beijing presented a long list of products it wanted excluded from the deal, prompting the US and others to walk away.

“We do not want a similar fate to strike the [services talks],” a US official said.

“The United States supports any member joining the TiSA who shares the objective to have a high standard and ambitious services trade agreement,” the official said. “The price of admission for any economy to these trade negotiations must be a demonstrated commitment to that objective.”

One senior Geneva-based trade official said: “TiSA has always been envisioned as a group of the like minded?.?.?.?But the question is: ‘Is China like-minded?’”

Part of the suspicion of China’s motives is driven by its past antipathy towards negotiations taking place outside the WTO framework, in which the Chinese have growing influence. The new WTO director-general, Brazil’s Roberto Azevêdo, has appointed a Chinese deputy.

“A year ago they were giving speeches in the [WTO] general council where they were saying TiSA was going to be the death knell of the multilateral system?.?.?.?Now they are very actively figuring out how they can join,” the Geneva-based trade official said.

With the 12-year-old negotiations towards a global trade deal in the WTO stalled thanks to a stalemate between developed economies and emerging powers such as China and India, the US has in recent years prioritised big regional trade negotiations and “plurilateral” agreements such as TiSA.

Not only has China until now been reticent about trade deals outside the WTO, it has until now been largely excluded from US-led talks. For that reason, many believe the US strategy is aimed at containing its emerging rival economically, or at the very least keeping it from the negotiating table as the potential building blocks of a global trade deal are assembled.

China’s bid to join the TiSA talks, which began in August when Beijing’s commerce minister, Gao Hucheng, first raised the idea with US trade representative Michael Froman, would potentially upend that strategy.

中国正寻求加入由美国牵头的旨在更新全球每年4万亿美元服务贸易的陈旧规则的谈判，此举引起了美方对于中方动机的担忧。

对世界贸易组织(WTO)缺乏进展感到失望的美国、欧盟和另外20多个以富国为主的国家，去年发起了旨在达成新的《服务贸易协定》(TiSA)的谈判。此项谈判覆盖全球服务的大约70%，并且是美国总统巴拉克?奥巴马(Barack Obama)贸易战略的主要支柱之一。

近几周美国和中国官员开了几次会，尚不清楚美国会否（或者能否）阻止中国加入谈判。据接近谈判的人士透露，中国也与欧盟和其他谈判方举行了商谈。记者一时联系不上中国官员请其置评。

美国官员担忧的是，如果中国加入商讨，中方可能寻求弱化这一服务协定。他们指出，今夏早些时候，中国在围绕意在降低高科技产品贸易壁垒的《信息技术协定》(Information Technology Agreement)的谈判中就是这么做的。那项谈判在今年7月暂停，原因是中方提交了冗长的产品清单，希望使清单上的产品不受《协定》约束，此举促使美国和其它国家退出谈判。

“我方不希望类似的命运降临（服务谈判），”美国一名官员表示。

“美国支持任何目标一致（即达成一项高标准的、雄心勃勃的服务贸易协定）的成员加入TiSA，”这名官员表示。“对任何经济体来说，加入此类贸易谈判的代价必须是展现出对这一目标的承诺。”

常驻日内瓦的一名资深贸易官员表示：“TiSA一直被设想为一群志同道合的国家之间的协议……但问题是：‘中国与其志同道合吗？’”

对中方动机的疑虑，在一定程度上是因为中国以往对世贸组织框架外的贸易谈判并不热情；中国在世贸组织内部的影响力越来越大。世贸组织新任总干事、巴西人罗伯托?阿泽维多(Roberto Azevêdo)已经任命了一位中国副手。

“一年前，他们在世贸组织总理事会会议上发表讲话，称TiSA将敲响多边体系的丧钟……而现在他们在非常积极地研究如何加入，”上述常驻日内瓦的官员表示。

由于发达经济体与中国和印度等新兴大国之间谈不拢，世贸组织框架内为达成全球贸易协定而展开的长达12年的谈判已陷入停滞。有鉴于此，近年来美国优先推动重大区域性贸易谈判，以及TiSA这样的“诸边”协定。

此前中国不仅对世贸组织框架外的贸易协定表态不多，而且基本上被美国牵头的谈判拒之门外。基于这一理由，许多人相信，美国的战略意图是从经济上遏制正在崛起的竞争对手，或者至少在打造一份全球贸易协定的潜在构件时，不让其坐上谈判桌。

中国争取加入TiSA谈判的努力可能颠覆这一战略。这项努力是从8月起步的，当时中国商务部长高虎城首次向美国贸易代表迈克尔?弗罗曼(Michael Froman)提出这个构想。

译者/和风