Associated Press

Beijing, March 15:

China shares Europe’s hopes for a quick resumption of World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks to promote freer trade, the European Union’s top trade official said today, citing “a common sense” that the process needs to get back on track.

EU trade commissioner Pascal Lamy, emerging from a meeting with newly appointed Chinese commerce minister Bo Xilai, said both sides share “a sense of urgency” for renewed world trade talks after the Doha round broke down in September, primarily due to disagreements among WTO members about agriculture.

“I’ve explained to my new colleague why we believe it’s so important to move rapidly,” Lamy said, “We have to move on agriculture, we have to move on industrial tariffs, we have to move on things like development.”“I think there’s a lot of understanding on the Chinese side that for a relatively small price, a big reward is available” if talks work out. I think there is a common sense that we have to get things moving in the coming weeks - not the coming years, not the coming months, but the coming weeks,” he added.

In a separate interview, Lamy said he planned to voice EU concerns about Beijing’s compliance with its WTO commitments in construction services, semiconductor production, banking, telecommunications and automaking. He said a threat to force foreign carmakers to use separate distribution networks for locally made and imported vehicles “is something that simply doesn’t fit with WTO commitments.”He also said he expected Asian central banks to gradually buy more euros and rely less on the US dollar. Referring to China’s currency, the yuan, also known as the renminbi, he said, “In our view, there isn’t much rationale any more for the renminbi to remain pegged to the dollar.” He didn’t comment on the yuan’s value compared to the dollar - a source of friction between Beijing and Washington.

Bo, in his welcoming remarks, praised Lamy as “a good friend of China.” He joked that instead of reading Lamy’s new book from beginning to end, he first skipped to the parts about China.

Lamy noted that his book was translated into Chinese even before it was published in English - “a sign of new times.” He said later that their talks didn’t touch upon Europe’s ban on eapons sales to China - a ban that might be lifted soon.

“The EU trade policy is about civilian goods and services,” he said, “Weapons are dealt with on the foreign policy side.”Europe imposed its weapons ban after Beijing’s bloody 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square. It could decide this spring to

end the restriction, opening the door to lucrative contracts from China’s military.