China Vote, Hearing Scheduled

April 14, 2000

The House will vote the week of May 22 on whether to grant China permanent normal trade relations, days after the House Agriculture Committee holds a hearing on the subject. A coalition of 82 agricultural groups told House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) that the China market represents "a huge opportunity" to increase farm product exports but only if Congress approves PNTR.

House Agriculture Committee Chairman Larry Combest (R-TX) said the lead witnesses at the May 17 hearing will be Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman and U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky;.

"China makes all the concessions in this deal," said Combest, "while the United States gives up absolutely no ground. As the vote nears for opening the American farmer’s trade opportunities with China, the benefits to U.S. agriculture weigh all the more favorably."

The 82-member Agriculture Coalition for U.S.-China Trade commended Hastert for scheduling a vote. In a letter to the speaker, the group said, "The question before Congress is whether U.S. farmers, workers and businesses will be allowed to have the same access to China’s vast market as our competitors in Canada, the European Union and Japan will have when China joins the World Trade Organization."

National Association of Wheat Growers President Terry Detrick said a vote against PNTR would exclude wheat producers from a market that represents 20% of the world’s consumers. "Failure of the Congress to grant PNTR for China would sanction the United States out of the largest market in the world."

Christopher Shaffer, chairman of the Wheat Export Trade Education Committee and U.S. Wheat Associates, said the Chinese economy has expanded "at a tremendous rate of 10% per year recently, increasing their ability to purchase high quality U.S. wheat. Voting against PNTR would deny U.S. wheat producers the opportunity to cultivate this large potential growth market."