Busy Day on the China Front

May 18, 2000

Two key committees Wednesday approved legislation to grant China permanent normal trade relations as Texas Gov. George W. Bush urged Congress to approve the controversial legislation as he carried his presidential campaign to Everett, WA. President Clinton warned in a speech in New London, CT, that "a future of dangerous confrontation" loomed if PNTR was denied, and the House Agriculture Committee heard a litany of calls for PNTR approval.

The Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee reported companion bills by overwhelming margins to set the stage for the first floor vote scheduled for next week in the House. The Senate will consider the finance committee’s bill after the House votes.

A side deal, designed to garner more Democratic House support, has won the agreement of the Republican congressional leadership. That bill would create a commission to monitor human rights in China and put safeguards in place against import surges.

The Ways and Means Committee vote was 34-4 in favor of granting China PNTR. The vote in the Senate committee was 19-1.

"Both countries (United States and China) will win immeasurably" with PNTR, said finance Committee Chairman William V. Roth, Jr. (R-DE). "America will gain jobs as we gain access to the world’s most populous market. China will gain American products. And just as importantly, they will gain American ideas about fundamental freedom, the rule of law and rights of the individual."

Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) said, "I do not believe it was a coincidence that China withdrew from the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade in 1950, just as it began a long period of isolation from the West. This was a period of heightened tension and even warfare as American troops battled regular Peoples Liberation Army forces in Korea.

"And I do not believe it is a coincidence now, that just as China seeks to join the World Trade Organization and seeks greater engagement with the world, that China is engaging in the most sweeping economic and political reforms since its revolution."

The U.S. relationship with China "is complicated with several dimensions," Grassley added. "It’s up to use to manage this relationship. I believe that anchoring China more firmly in the world community and exporting our values as well as our goods and services is a very good thing and will bring many benefits, including the greatest benefit of all – mutual understanding and peace."

Republican president candidate Bush has defined sharp differences with Clinton and Vice president Al Gore, the probable Democratic nominee for president in November, but Wednesday temporarily joined both in calling on a bitterly divided House to vote for PNTR, REUTERS reports from Everett, WA. Bush said he was acting "on principle" on "a pressing question that will not wait until the next president takes office. I am here to urge all members of congress, both Republicans and Democrats, to join together in making China a normal trading partner of the United States."

Clinton, addressing the graduating class of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, painted a dire future of U.S.-China relations if PNTR is not approved – "a future of dangerous confrontation and constant insecurity."

If Congress approves, he added, it will not guarantee that China will open up its society and improve human rights, "but it will certainly increase the likelihood that it will." If Congress rejects the trade bill, that will strengthen the elements in China that U.S. labor unions claim to be fighting, he said.