Beijing Hopes EU to Fulfill Obligations Under China's WTO Accession Protocol

BEIJING (Sputnik) — Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at a recent meeting with EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini expressed hope that the European Union in due time will start fulfilling its obligations under Article 15 of the Protocol on China's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), granting market economy status to China, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.

"The Chinese side hopes that the European Union will start at set times to fulfill obligations under Article 15 of the Protocol on China's accession to the WTO, and will take appropriate measures to address China's sensitive issues concerning the fundamental interests," the ministry said in a statement issued after the two diplomats' Sunday meeting in New York.

Mogherini, in turn, claimed that the European Union had intensified efforts on the implementation of the obligations under Article 15.

Earlier this year, the European Commission claimed that the European Union had rejected to recognize China as a market economy, fearing oversupply of production capacity in the country. Brussels believes that granting China, which is a WTO member, market economy status will complicate the anti-dumping investigations against Beijing, as well as result in up to 3.5 million job losses.

China joined the WTO in 2001. The country is recognized as a market economy by Russia, Brazil, Switzerland, Australia and New Zealand. Within the European Union, such countries as the United Kingdom and the Netherlands support China being assigned a market economy status, however, many EU members insist that China has not met all the European criteria for such a move.