DATE=3/9/2000
TYPE=U-S OPINION ROUNDUP
TITLE=THE CHINA TRADE DEBATE
NUMBER=6-11720
BYLINE=ANDREW GUTHRIE
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
EDITOR=ASSIGNMENTS
TELEPHONE=619-3335
CONTENT=
INTRO: President Clinton has begun a campaign to win
congressional passage of a measure that would grant
China normal trading status with the United States,
and thus put an end to the yearly congressional
argument over U-S trade relations with Beijing.
America's trade relations with China are always a
controversial topic on Capitol Hill and more so this
year due to recent warnings from Beijing about
retaking Taiwan by force, and Beijing's latest crack
down on religious and political dissent. Many U-S
editorial columns are joining in the debate, and we
get a sampling now from ___________ in today's U-S
Opinion roundup.
TEXT: Trade between the United States and China 17-
billion dollars in recent years. President Clinton
has said many times, to critics of China's flawed
record on human rights, that the best way to draw
China deeper into the society of nations is to
increase trade and other contacts, rather than isolate
Beijing.
Critics of the president's China policy, among them
many Democrats on Capitol Hill, continue to be angry
about the repression of both political and religious
dissidents, as well as recent bellicose statements
about possibly re-taking Taiwan if unification talks
continue to stall. So it is generally agreed that
President Clinton now has a difficult task, convincing
Congress to grant China permanent, most favored nation
trading status.
The majority of newspapers agree with the president,
although many others are upset at the threats against
Taiwan. We begin in Florida, where the St. Petersburg
Times, which sides with Mr. Clinton.
VOICE: Washington has been routinely extending
China's normal trade status year after year, receiving
nothing tangible in return. Now our government has a
historic opportunity to extract concessions from
Beijing that will remove longstanding barriers to U-S
companies seeking to do business in China. The
concessions also could go a long way toward opening
China's society to the world and breaking the insular
grip of Beijing's Communist leadership. In return,
Washington would have to make permanent the trade
status is has annually awarded China anyway. ... [The]
... new agreement, ... which makes sense both
strategically and economically, should not be held
hostage to short-sighed politics. It deserves to be
ratified.
TEXT: Southern California's San Diego Union-Tribune
goes over some of the problems the president is facing
in his battle with a reluctant Congress.
VOICE: [President] Clinton will have to muster
whatever political capital he has to win passage of
the trade accord. That will prove rather tricky,
given that organized labor, a key Democratic
constituency, is determined to prevent permanent
normal trade relations (N-T-R) with China, as well as
Beijing's entry into the World Trade Organization.
Labor's resolve on China trade was dramatized when
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and two other labor
leaders resigned "in protest" from President Clinton's
Advisory Commission on Trade Policy and Negotiations.
...As it is now, China imposes Draconian trade
barriers to U-S goods and services, including import
quotas, tariffs, licensing requirements and local
content mandates. A U-S-China trade agreement will
reduce, if not altogether eliminate, these trade
barriers. That means U-S companies will be able to
market far more goods and services to China's one
billion consumers -- goods produced and services
provided by American workers. ... That's why
liberalized trade with China would be a win-win for
American business **and** [italics for emphasis]
American workers.
TEXT: The New York Times, taking note of the recent
threats toward Taiwan from Beijing if reunification
talks continue to drag on without progress, is one of
several papers that say the Chinese are prone to
terrible diplomatic timing.
VOICE: It would be beneficial to America, China and
Taiwan to see Beijing admitted to the World Trade
Organization under the reasonable terms negotiated
last year. But China is now pressing its luck in
Washington. Its bullying attitude toward Taiwan will
increase congressional opposition to W-T-O membership.
The longer-term risk is that continued Chinese threats
could lead to dangerous military tensions in the
Taiwan Strait. That would be the least promising way
to deal with Taiwan's future.
TEXT: The Atlanta Constitution says Congress should
move quickly, on the China trade issue, and the big
Georgia daily praises President Clinton's efforts.
VOICE: He's buttonholed (has spoken with) at least 50
senators and representatives on the issue. He's set
up a "war room" to coordinate the trade-deal campaign.
His Treasury secretary, Lawrence Summers, made a major
speech in Boston advocating most-favored-nation status
for China. And Wednesday, [Mr.] Clinton himself made
trade with China the focus of a speech at Johns
Hopkins University, and he sent the enabling
legislation to Capitol Hill. All this in the face of
vigorous opposition from Big Labor and
environmentalists, two key Democratic constituencies.
TEXT: Turning to the directly related issue of
Beijing's recent threats to re-take Taiwan by force if
the reunification talks continue to stall, Paul
Greenberg, editorial page editor of the Arkansas
Democrat-Gazette, has some thoughts on that, published
this week in the St. Paul Pioneer Press. He says:
"The United States cannot afford to turn its back on
... Taiwan":
VOICE: At the dawn of a new century, we still have
not learned one of the clearest lessons of the old: A
democratic ally denied the means to defend itself may
soon become an irresistible target, and this country
will be called on to defend it. An ounce of
deterrence now might prevent a world of aggression
later.
TEXT: Lastly, from the city with America's largest
ethnic Chinese population, the San Francisco Chronicle
writes.
VOICE: Political foes don't need convincing arguments
to assail China with -- Beijing does the work so well
itself. Consider China's outburst aimed at Taiwan as
the island heads toward a March 18th presidential
election. The Taiwan vote was mostly a homegrown
affair ... The perennial issue of independence or
unification with China was ever-present but
subordinate. Then Beijing stepped in to warn about
"the use of force" against the island ... The stunt
has boomeranged badly for Beijing and embarrassed the
pro-China policies of the Clinton administration. The
salvo couldn't have come at a worse time if Beijing is
attempting to steer the Taiwan vote or win adherents
on Capitol Hill. ... China has supplied the reasons
for the Senate to approve stronger military ties to
Taiwan, a move unneeded in calmer times. In addition,
Congress soon will take up permanent trade ties with
China, leading ultimately to admission to the World
Trade Organization. This major trophy will be harder
to earn the more China rants about its dusty quarrel
with Taiwan.
TEXT: On that note, we conclude this sampling of
comment from the U-S press on the debate over granting
permanent normal trading status to China.
NEB/ANG/KL
09-Mar-2000 13:51 PM EDT (09-Mar-2000 1851 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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