Trade ministers from the European Union, Canada, Japan and the United States endorsed a statement Wednesday calling for China's accession to the World Trade Organization by November.

In wrapping up two days of quadrilateral trade talks in Tokyo, the ministers also said, "We welcomed progress made in respect of the accession of China, and will continue our respective discussions with a view to completing these accession negotiations prior to the Seattle Ministerial so as to enable China to participate in the next round as a WTO member."

The Quadrilateral Trade Ministers Meeting, the 32nd of its kind since 1982, was chaired by trade minister Kaoru Yosano and attended by Sergio Marchi, Canadian Minister for International Trade; vice president of the European Commission, the executive body of the EU, Leon Brittan; and U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky.

The participants spent most of the time discussing preparations for the WTO ministerial conference in Seattle scheduled for November and the new round of the WTO trade negotiations slated to start in 2000.

The conference also covered trade and competition, electric commerce, government procurement, intellectual property, trade facilitation, the WTO dispute settlement mechanism, the environment and social dimensions of trade.

The issue of China's WTO admission became a focal point since it has been recently overshadowed by NATO's accidental bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade. The incident has prompted Beijing to stiffen its diplomatic attitude toward the U.S. and its Western allies.

Yosano called the quadrilateral conference "a great success" in that it served as a preliminary skirmish for the Seattle ministerial meeting and as a starting point for other ministerial-level meetings.

The debate that began in Tokyo, Yosano said, has set a tempo for the rest of the year.

Hailing the four ministers' efforts in developing the debate, which he termed "profound discussions," Yosano expressed the quartet's determination to take the lead in generating international and domestic momentum among the world's trading partners toward the new round.

Regarding China, all four ministers said at the closing press conference that they feel the unfortunate bombing accident and the WTO issue should be dealt with separately.

Their concern is that whatever is decided in the new round of WTO negotiations will lack certain momentum without the involvement of a rising trade power like China.

The four also decided that the next round of negotiations should be broad-based and cover issues other than the built-in agenda of services and agriculture.

They also decided that negotiations on industrial tariffs and non-tariff barriers would be taken up first in the upcoming round.

Positive progress was also made on investment, as the ministers agreed on the importance of gaining support from all WTO members to have investment-barrier reduction put on the agenda for the new round.

The participants also reconfirmed they would conclude the new round within three years. That compares with the eight-year span consumed by the Uruguay round, held under the auspices of the WTO's forerunner, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.

Still, deep discrepancies appeared in regard to the four's strategies for the millennium round.

For example, the participants failed to settle on the mode of negotiations.

During the meetings, Japan and the European Union reconfirmed their solidarity in demanding that all issues under negotiation in the round be dealt with in a single undertaking.

Japan and the EU say this is to give WTO members room to cut deals in areas where their interests clash.

The U.S. wants to tackle highly competitive sectors such as agriculture and services one by one.

Japan also insisted on the need for the WTO to review its current antidumping agreement for the sake of transparency and appropriate practices. But it could not draw a consensus, with the United States being most adamantly opposed.

The ministers also failed to resolve a deadlock on who should be the next director general of the WTO, electing to agree only on the necessity of appointing the candidate on the basis of consensus.

Japan is pushing for Thailand's candidate Supachai Panitchpakdi, and so are other Asian economies and developing countries. The United States and some European nations back New Zealander Mike Moore.

While the ministers stressed the need to beef up WTO functions, they urged the WTO to seek closer policy coherence with other international organizations such as the International Monetary Fund and cooperation from society.

For the WTO to become a more universal body, the ministers reaffirmed their commitment to make the utmost effort to facilitate the accession of developing countries, particularly those that are least developed.