DATE=2/15/2000
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=U.S.-CHINA TRADE
NUMBER=5-45464
BYLINE=DAVID GOLLUST
DATELINE=WHITE HOUSE
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: President Clinton has mounted an intensive
drive to persuade Congress to permanently grant China
normal trading status with the United States - a move
that would help clear the way to Chinese entry into
the World Trade Organization, the WTO. White House
aides describe it as the toughest political fight Mr.
Clinton will have in his final year in office. V-O-A's
David Gollust reports from the White House
TEXT: The debate has created unusual alliances - with
business groups and top Republicans supporting the
President, and labor unions and other traditional
Democratic party constituents opposing the trade
measure. And with election-year politics complicating
the mix, White House aides believe Mr. Clinton only
has a window of a few months to get the controversial
measure through the Congress.
The Clinton Administration promised to permanently put
China on the same tariff basis as virtually all other
U-S trading partners as part of a market-opening
bilateral trade agreement concluded late last year.
The White House says China - which enjoys a huge
surplus in its trade with the United States - made
virtually all the concessions to get the agreement.
But some opponents say they doubt China's willingness
to actually live up to its terms in opening closed
markets to U-S goods and services. Others contend that
by giving up what has been an annual congressional
debate on China's trade status, the United States is
relinquishing vital leverage over - among other things
- China's human rights performance.
As he officially began his lobbying campaign for the
trade agreement last month, President Clinton said the
trade deal will not prevent the United States from
pressing its views on human rights and other issues on
which its disagrees with Beijing. At the same time, he
said opening China to more world trade will encourage
both economic reform and respect for the rule of law
in that country:
/// CLINTON ACTUALITY ///
We want to see a China that is moving toward
democracy at home and stability around the
world. This agreement gives China's people
access to goods and services, to ideas and
innovations that will help to promote those
goals. It also gives China access to the World
Trade Organization membership, and that will
help promote those goals. Bringing China into
the WTO is a win-win decision. It will protect
our prosperity. And will promote the right kind
of change in China.
/// END ACT ///
President Clinton has been meeting groups of
congressmen on almost a daily basis - focusing on
Democrats who are badly split over the issue. There is
broader support among Republicans, including
presidential candidate George W. Bush who told the N-
B-C television last Sunday that he too believes that
opening China to freer trade will have a beneficial
political impact:
/// BUSH ACTUALITY ///
The World Trade Organization has been a very
interesting debate. Many religious leaders
around the world believe that China ought to be
admitted into the World Trade Organization
because they recognize what I recognize - that
there's a better chance for freedom to take hold
in China. Members of the democracy movement in
China have expressed their desire for trade to
continue, because they realize what you and I
know: that if the Internet takes hold, freedom
will take wing.
/// END ACTUALITY ///
But U-S organized labor fiercely opposes the
agreement. Labor unions fear a loss of jobs to China
if U-S companies move factories there. They promise a
fight on the scale of labor opposition in the mid-
1990's to the North America Free Trade Agreement or
NAFTA.
Thea Lee - Assistant Director for Public Policy for
the AFL-CIO labor federation - told V-O-A the WTO is a
weak organization that can and would do nothing to
prod China to improve its poor record on workers' and
human rights:
/// LEE ACTUALITY ///
There are no rules, there are no minimum
standards protecting workers rights or human
rights. And so there's no pressure that comes on
China from its membership in the World Trade
Organization to improve its egregiously bad
record on human rights and workers rights. And
we think that if the United States Congress
turns down permanent, normal trade relations, we
will have the ability to use annual reviews and
unilateral sanctions more effectively to
pressure China to make sure that its workers
have freedom of association, the right to
organize and bargain collectively, and that
there are not abuses of forced labor, child
labor or discrimination in employment.
/// END ACT ///
Stephen Yates, senior China policy analyst at
Washington's conservative Heritage Foundation, says
there is nothing inevitable about human right progress
in China flowing from increased trade. But he says
China needs access to advanced technologies, and its
Communist leaders are taking what he terms "a
precarious gamble" in seeking to join WTO. Mr. Yates,
who - on balance - supports permanent normal trade
status for China, says the annual debate in Congress
was probably over-rated as a way of influencing
Chinese policy:
/// YATES ACTUALITY ///
If a president moves forward with permanent
extension by clearly outlining plans he had to
address these kinds of concerns through another
means, then we haven't lost leverage - he simply
moves leverage from one area to another. And
there's also somewhat of a debate on how much
leverage there really was in this process.
Because no matter how you went about it, it's
true there was an annual debate or argument or
discussion about U-S relations with China and
things happening in China. But just the same, if
right after the Tiananmen Square massacre in
1989 we weren't going to discontinue normal
trade with China, when were we?
/// END ACT ///
U-S Senate approval of the China trade package is
considered likely. But analysts in both parties say it
is a close call in the House of Representatives,
despite a 260-to-170 vote for extending trade benefits
the last time the issue came up for annual review last
July. They say Democratic votes for the deal will
evaporate as the November election draws nearer, and
the administration will stand little chance of getting
approval if it is not acted on by June. (Signed)
NEB/DAG/JO
15-Feb-2000 16:52 PM EDT (15-Feb-2000 2152 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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