Clinton Should Address Congress on China

April 7, 2000

Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) wants President Clinton to address a joint session of Congress on trade with China. In that way, Clinton could "provide the kind of leadership that’s required:" to secure passage of legislation to grant China permanent normal trade relations with the United States.

Grassley’s comments came Thursday at a Senate Finance Committee hearing on China’s accession to the World Trade Organization. "The nature and scope of the market access concessions Chjina has agreed to (in last year’s U.S.-China bilateral pact) will give pork producers in Iowa, wheat farmers in North Dakota, banks in New York and insurance companies in Connecticut unprecedented access to China’s markets," he said.

But the United States must be able to enforce those provisions, including tariff reductions and market access concessions. One concern of Grassley’s was that it took China months before publishing regulations telling U.S. meat producers how it would comply with the agreement. "Under great pressure by many members of this committee, including myself, China finally issued rules telling our exporters how to bring their products into China."

Opponents of PNTR argue China’s WTO membership won’t make any difference, Grassley added, "China will still do what it wants." But that ignores reality, he added. China’s "wasteful state enterprises destroyed one-third of the capital they received. China knows it must join the world trade community and live by our rules for its own economic survival."

But Clinton has to make a "strong, clear case to Congress." Otherwise anti-WTO demonstrations in Washington next week "may cause him to change his mind about China." If Clinton does what Grassley says, "we can get this legislation (on PNTR) through here in 48 hours."