UNITED24 - Make a charitable donation in support of Ukraine!

Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

USIS Washington File

09 May 2000

Transcript: Podesta, Glickman Interview on China WTO Accession/PNTR

(By joining WTO, China opening market to American products) (4300)
In the past, U.S. farmers' access to the Chinese market has been
restricted by high tariffs, government subsidies, lack of
transparency, and the lack of the rule of law, according to White
House Chief of Staff John Podesta.
"Last year," Podesta said in a May 9 interview with members of the
National Association of Farm Broadcasters, "every man, woman, and
child in China consumed less than a single dollar's worth of American
agricultural goods. But by joining the WTO, China is opening its
market to American products."
The U.S.-China agreement on China's WTO accession, Podesta continued,
"provides a comprehensive approach to dealing with China's trade
policies and will assist in leveling the playing field for U.S.
products."
Chinese tariff rate quotas, export subsidies, domestic price supports,
and state trading enterprises will all be either phased out or
reduced, he said.
Podesta was joined by Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman in the effort
to convince U.S. farmers to pressure their representatives in the U.S.
Congress to support Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) with
China. Without PNTR, U.S. exporters to China will not be able to take
full advantage of those market-opening measures under the U.S.-China
WTO accession agreement.
Following is a transcript of the interview:
(begin transcript)
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release                 May 9, 2000
INTERVIEW OF CHIEF OF STAFF JOHN PODESTA
AND SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE DAN GLICKMAN
BY MEMBERS OF NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF FARM BROADCASTERS
The Roosevelt Room
May 8, 2000
MR. PODESTA: Thank you all for coming today. I'm John Podesta, the
President's Chief of Staff. And I want to spend a couple of minutes
talking about why we're here today as part of normal trade relations
with China, then let Secretary Glickman make a brief statement, and
then be happy to take your questions. And I want to thank you all for
giving us the opportunity to address the issues on the minds of,
frankly, many people here in Washington and those farmers and people
in rural America around the country -- China's entry into the WTO.
I want to begin by saying that the President had hoped to be here
himself today, and regrets that he couldn't be here. As you know, he's
attending Cardinal O'Connor's funeral in New York, which has kept him
away from this event, but did want me to let you know that.
There is no more pressing issue on the President's agenda, and on the
agenda, frankly, we believe of America's farmers than this agreement.
And there is no other sector in the American economy that is going to
benefit more from the vote that the House will take in a little more
than two weeks. A fair and open global trading system offers U.S.
agriculture the best hopes for a prosperous future.
Today, one out of every three acres of America's farms is dedicated to
exports. To farmers, exports means income, jobs and a reduced risk for
American agriculture. With exports accounting for an estimated 30
percent of gross cash receipts, it's not surprising then that
America's farmers are twice as reliant, twice as reliant, on foreign
trade as the U.S. economy as a whole.
No nation offers a greater potential consumer base for American
business and agriculture than China. Last quarter its economy grew at
a rate of 8.1 percent, and has grown at 9 percent annually since 1994.
Incomes are increasing. The Chinese middle class is expanding. Private
enterprise is taking root in China. As the world's most populous
nation, China is in the midst of a gradual, but far-reaching economic
reform.
In the past our access to the Chinese market has been tightly
restricted, as you all well know -- high tariffs, government subsidies
lack of transparency, no rule of law. Last year, every man, woman, and
child in China consumed less than a single dollar's worth of American
agricultural goods. But by joining the WTO, China is opening its
market to American products.
This agreement provides a comprehensive approach to dealing with
China's trade policies and will assist in leveling the playing field
for U.S. products. Tariffs on priority products will drop from 31
percent to 14 percent. Many tariffs would be lower than those assessed
by our traditional trading partners. Export subsidies would be
eliminated, which will have a major impact in nations like Korea,
where we're competing with Chinese exports for market share.
Domestic price supports would be capped and then reduced. State
trading enterprises would be phased out, allowing direct
business-to-business contact. New tariff rate quotas with lower tariff
rates and higher caps would be introduced. Removal of import bans on
citrus, wheat and meat, which have already paved the way for the first
exports to China in more than 20 years, which we've just seen
recently, in the last couple of months.
American agriculture needs these concessions, especially after two or
three years of coping with soft export demand and wheat prices brought
on initially by the Asian financial crisis.
For the family farmer in America, trade is not an abstraction, it is
vital to their bottom line. But no one is hurt more by dips in
commodity prices than family farmers. In joining the WTO China is
committed to disciplining its agricultural trade policy, which will
lead to greater stability in world markets. All told, we expect that
by 2005 we could see an increase of $2 billion a year in American farm
exports. And as Dan is going to mention, some new studies indicate
that that number could even be higher. That's almost twice as much as
last year's total farm exports to China.
Unlike most conventional free trade agreements, where there's give and
take on both sides, in this case all the concessions are on the
Chinese side, because our market is already open to them. We have
absolutely nothing to lose. On the other hand, we have everything to
lose by rejecting permanent normal trade relations. China will still
join the WTO, but the United States will be left on the outside
looking in, as our competitors march into China and seize the market
share that we helped to open. It would take us years to regain any
kind of commercial momentum in China.
Let me conclude by noting that the U.S. is the largest and most
efficient agricultural producer in the world. If our farmers have the
right access, we can out-compete anyone.
With record economic growth, 21 million new jobs, and deficits on
decline, this is a moment of great promise for America. This vote will
help ensure that despite the hard times of recent years, it will also
be a moment of great promise for American farmers and the rural
communities they support.
So we urge you, and we urge the people casting this vote, to move
forward together and seize this opportunity.
Let me turn it over to Secretary Glickman.
SECRETARY GLICKMAN: Thank you very much, John. Let me just make a
couple of additional points. The administration negotiated what I
called stunning reductions in trade, and in increases in tariff rate
quotas, reductions in export subsidies, and elimination of sanitary
and phytosanitary barriers in all products, virtually -- meats from
beef, pork, poultry; dairy; citrus; specialty crops of all sorts. I
mean, things we would give our eyeteeth with, if other countries would
negotiate the same thing. So this is just an enormous, tremendous
opportunity.
I came back from China last week, where I led a presidential
delegation, where I saw American soybeans coming into the port of
Shanghai; where I visited a large grocery store, kind of like a
hypermart, in Shanghai, where we saw American citrus, American beef,
American specialty crops. And the fact is they like our products
because our quality is great. So it gives us an enormous opportunity
into a market in which the middle class is rapidly expanding.
And one final point: There have been some recent studies which would
indicate that even some of our figures on American exports of grain to
China may be conservative. A Harvard study done recently indicates
that China would increase substantially grain imports after it joins
the World Trade Organization. And recently Lester Brown of the World
Watch Institute indicates a very bleak future for Chinese grain
production because of lack of water supplies.
Now, all I'm saying is, we have an opportunity here, given our
production, to take advantage of those markets, which I don't want to
see us lose to our competitors in other parts of the world.
MR. PODESTA: Will take questions. Rick, do you want to start?
Q: Thank you. And on behalf of the professional members of the
National Association of Farm Broadcasters, thanks for taking time out
of your day to join us here, gentlemen. We do appreciate it.
Given the importance that PNTR for China has for American agriculture,
can this administration circumvent the political posturing that we're
seeing going on on Capitol Hill to bring this vote to the successful
conclusion? And how close are you to having enough votes to pass it in
the House and the Senate?
MR. PODESTA: Well, we're working on it every day. I think that we --
the President has been out, he's spoken about it publicly, and he's
speaking to members individually, privately.
Every member of the administration is engaged in this effort. I think
we're making good progress. I think we have a ways to go. The magic
number, as you know, is 218 -- that's what we need to do to get over
the top. We're working very cooperatively with the leadership in the
House starting with Speaker Hastert and the whole leadership team
there to make sure that this vote is successful.
I think we're feeling good about it. We had a number of both Democrats
and Republicans come out last week in favor of PNTR who had been
previously undecided. But it's going to -- we've got more work to do
and we've got questions to answer. And we're all out, as I said, in
force trying to convince members that this is the right thing to do
for America, and it's the right thing to do ultimately for our
national security posture. And we're doing that with every tool that
we have. But we're hopeful, I would say, bordering on confident -- but
you're never confident in these things until the vote's cast that
we'll be able to secure the votes for this.
Dan, do you want to add anything?
SECRETARY GLICKMAN: No.
MR. PODESTA: Dan just took four members --
SECRETARY GLICKMAN: I will say this. I took four members, and two were
committed yes, two were undecided. And I, as of last week, the
undecided hadn't committed. But they were astounded at the change that
has taken place in China. And the fact is there are perceptions about
China in this country that you might get from certain advocates,
certainly, and I understand that. But when you go over there and you
see that it's not as monolithic as one would expect -- there is
massive change, economic change, a lot of middle class, a lot of use
of the Internet, a lot of interest in communication with the world,
and a significant amount of change in human and religious rights as
well -- I think they were very impressed with that.
Q: John, even those who oppose this deal, this PNTR deal, admit that
it's going to be good for agriculture. But they say our balance of
trade is obviously lopsided with China, and that if we sign this, it
will only get worse. How do you respond to the balance of trade? Will
it help narrow it, or will it broaden it further?
MR. PODESTA: Well, we already talked about the outlooks for American
agriculture, which is selling our products over there. We think it
will -- in the end, it will help boost American exports to China in
both high technology, in goods and services, and in agricultural
products, which can only help reduce the trade deficit -- because,
quite frankly, the U.S. market is relatively open to Chinese goods.
For the last 20 years, every year, the Congress has voted for normal
trade relations, which provides the benefits that PNTR, on a permanent
basis, would give to Chinese exports.
So I think from that perspective, it will only help to sell more
product, more American products, more American services, into China.
And again, their side of the deal is that they get to join the WTO.
That's important to them; it will help modernize their economy, make
it more competitive. But I think that this is a winner for America and
for American industry.
And that's why we have, I think, so much support from export-oriented
industries. And I think those members of Congress that are in
districts that are particularly affected by trade and by exports are
beginning to see that and feel that strongly.
SECRETARY GLICKMAN: I'd just say a couple things. One, the United
States Trade Representative's Office negotiated this tremendous
agreement with China. If we were to vote this down, there is some
question about whether we could get the benefits of the tariff
reductions. But it's clear we couldn't get the other benefits-- the
TRQ changes, the sanitary and phytosanitary changes. So who's going to
get those? Our competitors in the EU and in Australia and other places
in the world. Everything we negotiated they're going to get the
benefit of if we vote this thing down.
So, I mean, it strikes you that it's kind of not a constructive and
rational thing for our country to be doing, just unilaterally giving
all these great agreements that we negotiated to every other country
in the world that didn't expend any resources to get those agreements.
And I think that's one of the main reasons why it's very important
that we participate in the same way that the rest of the world does.
MR. PODESTA: I think the other point I would note is that as part of
the agreement, Charlene Barshefsky, our Trade Representative,
negotiated some special protections that will deal with import surges
from China that go beyond what we currently have under U.S. trade law
and Section 201. So there's actually additional protection on a
product-specific basis that will aid in reducing any threat that you
suggest of actually expanding the question of --
Q: How long will it take to realize our agricultural potential?
Months? Years?
SECRETARY GLICKMAN: Well, we've already started with our sales of
citrus and meats and Pacific Northwest wheat. And my judgment is that
as the Chinese --
MR. PODESTA: And citrus.
SECRETARY GLICKMAN: And citrus -- as the Chinese move into the WTO,
those purchases will begin to increase fairly significantly and fairly
rapidly. I mean, our estimates are, by the year 2004, we're talking
about $2 billion in additional sales. But as I've said, some of the
recent numbers on the grain side indicate that that may be
conservative.
Q: How can a positive or negative vote on PNTR for China affect human
rights or worker protection standards?
MR. PODESTA: Well, we believe, obviously, strongly in the cause of
human rights. We've battled with the Chinese on their record on human
rights. We just supported a resolution in Geneva condemning some of
their human rights practices, and we'll continue to press that case.
And we think that we want to use whatever levers we can to press
ahead, to improve human rights and working conditions in China.
But it is our view that this agreement and bringing China into the WTO
will actually help the cause of human rights in China, by opening
China up to new technology, more Internet access, more sources of
information, business practices that U.S. firms will actually bring
into China when they hire workers, and provide the kind of basic
workers' standards in businesses overseas.
And I think that that is in part why people like -- last week Martin
Lee was here, who's a great democracy advocate from Hong Kong, who
said that -- he said to the President, he said to members of Congress
-- many of whom he has dealt with over the course of many years, some
of whom are opposing this agreement because of the human rights issues
-- and he said that he saw -- while he continues to be troubled by the
human rights practices of Beijing, he saw no other route than to try
to bring them into a rules-based trading system, to try to improve the
rule of law in China, to try to bring China into -- make it more
integrated into the world system. And in the long run, the cause of
human rights would be well-served by that.
And I think that's why the president-elect of Taiwan, for example,
supports PNTR for China. They see Taiwan entering along with China,
and that will actually, in our view, reduce tensions in the Straits of
Taiwan and result in a peaceful resolution of that conflict, as well.
SECRETARY GLICKMAN: Let me just add a couple anecdotes from my trip.
One is, we visited with Bishop Jin (phonetic). He is the Catholic
Archbishop of Shanghai. He was in prison for 27 years, from 1955 to
1982, for allegedly spying for the Vatican. He commented that the only
reason he survived the cultural revolution was that he was in jail,
and they couldn't find him, didn't know where he was. (Laughter.)
But his point was, he now has, he says, about 5,000 people every
Sunday come to Mass at his church. He says they haven't reached
perfection or nirvana in China at all on religious liberties, but he
says that things are moving in the right direction. And if the United
States were to disengage from China right now -- which a no-vote would
do -- it would make it extraordinarily difficult to get the Chinese to
move in the right,correct direction in human rights and religious
liberties, and those kinds of things. Not that they'd move that far
yet -- they still have a long way to go.
Then one other anecdote was interesting. We went to the Shanghai Stock
Exchange, interestingly, headed up by a former Kansan from the
University of Kansas. And I think he's still an American citizen -- he
was on Wall Street. And we went into the Stock Exchange where -- it
was probably one of the most modern exchange floors in the world --
all electronic trading. And there were American investment bankers
there doing their stuff, I mean, with Chinese people running them. And
on the wall in the back was the Reuters display.
And they had the ticker going across the board, and they had all the
exchange prices from every country in the world. And I thought to
myself, how is it ever going to be the same; it will never be the same
there because they've seen the world. And they've got to be part of
this world. And it's going to change the way they do everything --
maybe not overnight, but at least it's moving in the right direction.
Q: You're right on China, and I think there are a lot of other
countries in Southeast Asia that we ought to be willing to trade with.
I was on the trip with Secretary Schumacher -- we hit Japan, Korea,
Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia. Our ATO offices are saying it's going
to bust wide open, they're going to be able to sell a whole lot more.
We talked with many importers who said they would buy more.
Our ATO offices could stand a lot of help. And we gave out free rice,
free milk in some of the areas of Java, and they could use a lot more
U.S. products. They want U.S. products. Now, if we put on a big push
in all of Southeast Asia, I think we could get rid of a lot of
American farm products.
MR. PODESTA: The Secretary and I have just been discussing that. We
may have something more to say about that in the next month or so.
SECRETARY GLICKMAN: Well, clearly, Under Secretary Schumacher and his
team are really trying to move into Vietnam and Indonesia, Singapore.
Certainly Korea and Japan have been longtime big customers of ours.
And we're pushing to get as much resources as we can in terms of
ourforeign agriculture service and our agriculture trade offices. We
met the folks in Shanghai and in Hong Kong, and we will continue to
push that as best we can.
Q: Mr. Podesta -- if in the evening hours of Sunday, May 21 looks like
you do not have the votes and it would be very difficult to round up
enough during that week, will you go to the Speaker and ask him to
delay it past Memorial Day, or is the administration prepared to let
the chips fall --
MR. PODESTA: I think we are committed to trying to get the votes that
week. And I think that until -- the Speaker scheduled a vote, which we
encouraged him to do, I think that people found all kinds of places to
run and hide and ask questions. And this is -- given the opposition to
this vote on the outside, it's a tough vote for a lot of members. And
we recognize that. We think it's the right vote. We think it's the
right vote for the country; we think it's the right vote for people in
most districts, right vote politically. And it's clearly, I think, in
the national security interests of this country.
But I think that at this point we have scheduled the vote, we want to
see that vote occur, and I don't think we'll back off from having the
vote. And as I said, the Speaker scheduled it for that week. And you
never say never in this business, but we're committed to seeing the
vote that week.
Q: You mentioned human rights and getting countries in the right
direction, and you talk of other nations in Southeast Asia. But why
not try to open up relations with Cuba?
MR. PODESTA: Well, as you know, we had been embarked on a course of
trying to open up more relations with Cuba, prior to the shootdown of
the Brothers to the Rescue plane. And the result of that, which was,
even if they were in Cuban airspace -- which we don't believe they
were -- but even if they were over Cuban airspace, was unlawful under
international conventions -- caused a real, I think, freeze in that
situation, and caused the Congress to pass the Helms-Burton law.
We have tried to use the Helms-Burton law as much as we can to provide
humanitarian assistance, et cetera. But that's under discussion on
Capitol Hill, about a blanket approach, especially on food and
medicine, to see if we can work out a provision. That's controversial
on the Hill, but we've tried to engage with people on the Hill in a
constructive way to reduce the use of agricultural embargoes, et
cetera, by eliminating what we can under the law.
We've tried to take certain steps under our discretionary authorities
to go a fair piece towards reducing things that the administration has
imposed that are not multilateral, and that are not required by law.
But we think there's some room to go there, and we're trying to work
with Congress to see if that can happen.
Dan, you want to add anything to that?
SECRETARY GLICKMAN: No.
Q: Mr. Podesta, on that point, there's a bill introduced just a week
or so ago concerning those sanctions. Is the administration behind it?
MR. PODESTA: I haven't seen the exact language of --
SECRETARY GLICKMAN: It's the amendment on the appropriations bill, I
think that Nethercutt offered, which is basically what was offered
before, I think.
Q: -- against Cuba.
SECRETARY GLICKMAN: Yes.
MR. PODESTA: I think we had -- when we were in negotiations last year,
before this essentially kind of fell apart, more or less because there
were disagreements in the Republican caucus over the Cuba question, I
think we had some concerns about -- I thought they were not
country-specific, but we were seeking some additional language in that
amendment. And we would like to work constructively with Congress to
see if we can get that through.
MS. MOLONEY: Ladies and gentlemen, we need to wrap up.
MR. PODESTA: I have one last announcement, which -- I was handed a
sheet. So, because we've disappointed you by not having one President
here today -- (laughter) -- the consolation prize is, there are going
to be three Presidents here tomorrow. President Ford and President
Carter are joining President Clinton and a number of notable Americans
in support of PNTR. And I want to invite any of you who are still
going to be around after your final meeting to the event -- do you
know the time of the event?
MS. MOLONEY: 10:30 a.m., tomorrow morning.
MR. PODESTA: At 10:30 a.m. tomorrow morning. So you may have to get
here a little bit earlier than that --
SECRETARY GLICKMAN: You get the privilege of hearing me first, but I
can accelerate my remarks if you want me to. (Laughter.)
Q: Appreciate that. Thank you for your time.
MR. PODESTA: Thank you.
(end transcript)
(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)



NEWSLETTER
Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list