The chief US trade official urged China and other Asian countries on Monday to do more to rescue foundering World Trade Organization (WTO) talks ahead of a decisive conference, but also criticized China over its own trade policies. US Trade Representative Rob Portman said members of the WTO must agree to cut farm subsidies if a WTO ministerial conference in Hong Kong in mid-December is to make any progress on overall trade liberalization.

“Asia, perhaps more than any part of the world, has the most to benefit and most to lose depending on how the Doha round goes,” he said, referring to the current WTO negotiations over subsidies and barriers for services and farm goods, which began in Doha, Qatar, in 2001. “We need more nations, particularly the Pacific Rim nations, including China, to engage more aggressively in the negotiations.”

Portman was speaking in Beijing during a 10-day tour across Europe and Asia to garner support for Washington’s proposed reforms to agriculture ahead of the Hong Kong meeting.

He told an audience in the Chinese capital that overall progress in trade liberalization depended on agreement in agriculture. The United States and European Union have issued rival proposals to reduce support for farmers, which many developing countries say distorts agricultural trade.

On October 10, Washington offered to cut its farm subsidies by 60 percent and agricultural tariffs by up to 90 percent. Later, the EU offered to cut tariffs on farm goods by about 39 percent.

But both sides made the offers conditional on corresponding cuts by other countries and have accused each other of leaving loopholes to protect their farmers. On Wednesday, a group of developing countries called the G20, which includes China, India and Brazil, proposed that developed countries cut farm subsidies by 54 percent.

Portman said China could serve as a “bridge” between the competing proposals, helping to forge a consensus ahead of the Hong Kong meeting. He told a press briefing he would probably attend a meeting of trade ministers in Geneva next week to discuss agriculture.

Portman said he hoped a meeting of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation group in South Korea opening on Friday would issue a “strong statement” in favor of agricultural subsidy reforms. “In APEC they have an opportunity as a major player to step up and be heard,” Portman said of China.

President George W. Bush, Chinese President Hu Jintao and other leaders from the region will attend that meeting. But days before Bush also visits Beijing, Portman balanced his call for Chinese support with criticism of China’s own commercial practices, singling out what he called “rampant” violation of patents, trademarks and other intellectual property, as well as barriers blocking US direct-sales companies’ direct access to Chinese consumers.

These two complaints are likely to top Bush’s trade discussions in Beijing, Portman said. “Fakes on every street corner are an unbecoming symbol for a great power such as China,” he said. Portman, a member of the US House of Representatives before becoming trade representative this year, said these trade frictions were fuelling growing US distrust of China. Last year, the United States’ trade deficit with China grew to $ 162 billion and it is likely to pass $ 200 billion for 2005. Many members of Congress supported China’s successful bid to join the WTO in 2001 and voted to give it “permanent normal trading relations” (PNTR), a precondition for WTO entry, he said.

“If China’s PNTR came up today, we would have a very different debate, and perhaps a different outcome,” he said. “They believe the game is rigged.”Refusing to export nuclear power technology and equipment, satellite and other high-tech products had cost the United States at least $25 billion worth of exports to China, said Vice Commerce Minister Liao Xiaoqi.