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19 May 2000

Bereuter-Levin Draft China PNTR Bill Released May 19

(Sets up Congressional-Executive Commission on China)  (550)
By Steve La Rocque
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- Representatives Douglas Bereuter (Republican of
Nebraska) and Sander Levin (Democrat of Michigan) released May 19 the
draft of legislation that would work in parallel with legislation
granting China Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) status.
The draft bill is 61-pages long.
By contrast, the Amendment in the nature of a substitute for HR 4444,
passed by the House Ways and Means Committee May 17 has 25 pages, and
the original HR 4444, introduced May 15 in the House of
Representatives is just a single page.
The draft bill is entitled the "U.S.-China Relations Act of 2000."
The bill would establish a Congressional-Executive Commission on the
People's Republic of China, and lays out the procedures for monitoring
and enforcing China's World Trade Organization (WTO) commitments.
The bill would set up a Task Force on Prohibition of Importation of
Products of Forced or Prison Labor from the People's Republic of
China. The task force would report to Congress.
The proposed legislation would also set up technical assistance
programs for China to help that country's efforts to strengthen the
rule of law.
The full 61-page report is on the House International Relations
Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific home page at:
http://www.house.gov/international_relations/ap/ap.htm
The Congressional-Executive Commission on the People's Republic of
China, the proposed legislation says, "shall monitor the acts of the
People's Republic of China which reflect compliance with or violation
of human rights, in particular, those contained in the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and in the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights."
The Commission would see if the communist government was "effectively
affording" freedom of expression, including free expression of
religious beliefs, "without fear of any prior restraint."
It would also monitor the right to peacefully assemble, the right to
freedom of movement, the right to a fair trial, with the right to
defend oneself and to have legal assistance, and freedom from torture
and "other forms of cruel or unusual punishment."
The proposed panel would also check to see if the Beijing regime was
protecting "internationally recognized worker rights."
The Commission will maintain a "victims' list," the legislation says,
that would include people "believed to be imprisoned, detained, or
placed under house arrest, tortured, or otherwise persecuted" by
Beijing's communist government.
The Commission would issue an annual report, which would be the
subject of congressional hearings.
With a close vote expected in the House of Representatives, the
proposed legislation, PNTR supporters hope, will swing undecided
lawmakers to support the Clinton Administration's bid to win
congressional approval of PNTR for China.
The vote may come as early as Wednesday, May 24. If all 435 members of
the House of Representatives were to vote on the measure, 218 yes
votes would be needed for victory.
The present House of Representatives has 222 Republicans, 211
Democrats, and 2 Independents. Surveys of how lawmakers will vote on
the issue show that at this point neither the proponents of PNTR, nor
those who oppose the legislation, have the 218 votes needed to win.
(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International
Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site:
http://usinfo.state.gov)