P.M. BRIEFING : China Bars GATT Bid by Taiwan
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BEIJING — China today dismissed as “utterly illegal and absurd” an approach by Taiwan to join the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.
A Foreign Ministry spokesman said the Geneva-based world trade watchdog organization must reject the application.
Taiwan’s Economic Ministry said a week ago that the island had formally applied to join GATT as an independent customs territory.
By filing the application, the spokesman told a briefing for foreign journalists here, the Taiwan authorities were posing as the government of a sovereign country although the island is part of the only legal Chinese state, ruled by Beijing. Both Beijing and Taipei insist that there can be only one true China.
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