DATE=5/22/2000
TYPE=U-S OPINION ROUNDUP
TITLE=CHINA TRADE VOTE
NUMBER=6-11831
BYLINE=ANDREW GUTHRIE
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
EDITOR=ASSIGNMENTS
TELEPHONE=619-3335
INTERNET=YES
CONTENT=
INTRO: The House of Representatives is scheduled to
vote this week on normalizing trade with China. That
remains a popular editorial topic, as the lobbying
effort on both sides heats up. We get a sampling now
from _________ in today's U-S Opinion Roundup.
TEXT: For years the United States has tried to
influence the internal behavior of a few other
countries by subjecting them to an annual trade
review. It is called the Most Favored Nation trading
law, but that may be a misleading title. The law does
not give preferential trade status to countries, it
bestows on them normal trading relations the U-S has
with most nations of the world, but only after
congressional debate.
Some of the considerations the Congress takes into
account are civil and human rights. And China scores
low on both. Beijing is also unpopular with many
lawmakers for its continued belligerence to Taiwan.
China and the other nations affected by this policy
hate it, complaining it amounts to meddling in their
internal affairs. There are also critics of the
policy in this country, who feel trade relations need
to be kept separate from human rights, and other areas
of conflict.
Now, Congress is debating a Clinton administration
proposal to make normal trading with China, permanent,
ending the annual review. It is favored in the
Senate, but the House of Representatives vote,
scheduled for later this week, is thought to be very
close. Lobbying is intense. Most organized labor in
this country opposes the move, fearing the loss of
jobs, while some prominent Chinese dissidents also
oppose it, fearing the Chinese will be more repressive
if they win. Other dissidents, and former U-S
presidents Ford, Carter and Bush, say granting normal
status will increase trade and could eventually lead
to a better Chinese human rights climate. The vote is
also tied in to China's pending membership in the
World Trade Organization, supported by the Clinton
Administration.
Almost all papers coming in to the V-O-A newsroom
favor the change and they include The Kansas City
[Missouri] Star, which says "Approve permanent trade
relations with China."
VOICE: If permanent normal trade relations doesn't
pass, American exporters can't take advantage of
a market-opening agreement negotiated with China
last year. Among other things, that agreement
calls for big drops in auto tariffs by China.
That would allow carmakers to see American-made
cars in China. ... If permanent trading status
fails, China's door will open to the world - -
but not to U-S exporters. Yet the unions have
somehow convinced themselves that new markets
are very bad. So they've ginned up [concocted]
another go-to-the mat effort, hoping to wreck a
trade measure that's clearly in the U-S economic
and national security interest.
TEXT: The San Jose [California] Mercury News supports
the change, and says a congressional plan to establish
a commission to review both Chinese human rights
progress and honesty in trading should quell the fears
of many Democrats and others who oppose the bill.
VOICE: [The Plan will]...establish an office in the
Commerce Department, with a dozen specialists,
to monitor China's compliance with the trade
agreement it negotiated with America. ... The
latest proposals for monitoring Chinese exports
and human rights ... add one more element to the
overriding and compelling argument for permanent
normal trade and China's admission to the W-T-O.
TEXT: Still in California, The San Francisco Examiner
also feels that establishing a human rights monitoring
commission on China, linked to congressional approval
of normalizing trade relations, goes a long way to
appease the move's critics.
VOICE: Controversy over the administration's drive
for permanent normal trade relations with China
is yielding to imaginative solutions to problems
raised by legislative opponents and those
wavering on the issue. ... Approval of the
China trade bill also is brought closer by
agreement between House and Senate conferees on
terms of a bill providing trade benefits for
African and Caribbean nations. ... The aim of
[the proposed] commission [to monitor Chinese
human rights] is to exert continuous pressure on
Beijing to comply with its trade commitments as
well as improve its human rights record ... The
China bill faces a close vote in the house, but
is believed to have a safe margin in the Senate.
TEXT: In the Rhode Island capital, however, The
Providence Journal is worried. In an editorial
detailing China's repression of the Falun Gong
religious sect, the Journal is unsure of how the trade
debate will affect Beijing's attitude toward any type
of dissent.
VOICE: Governments around the world including our
own, have appealed to China to cease persecuting
the Falun Gong but the repression continues.
How Beijing thinks this will persuade wavering
senators to normalize trade relations with
China, or stimulate the W-T-O to invite China to
join, is beyond our comprehension.
TEXT: Speaking to the strong opposition of organized
labor to normalizing relations, The [Cleveland, Ohio]
Plain Dealer says in short: "Labor is wrong about
China."
VOICE: Labor's big fear is that multinational
companies ... will [take] American jobs
forthwith to that workers paradise. ... [and]
that granting Beijing such permanent status
would be to surrender forever the leverage to
press it for human rights, better environmental
policy and improved working conditions. The
concerns are reasonable and the stated
objectives honorable, but the denial would be
exactly the wrong course to take. The United
States has tried for years to lever China into
improving the lot of its working people, to very
little avail. ... Congress should approve ...
the China ... trade [measure] for the good of
all concerned.
TEXT: Turning to the home of one of this country's
largest trade unions, the United Auto Workers, The
Detroit News, weighs all of labor's concerns, and
those of human rights critics as well. The News says
however that to argue that giving China normal trading
status gives up the only leverage this country has to
bring about internal change, is "spurious for several
reasons."
VOICE: First, China already enjoys more access to U-S
markets than vice-versa. Yet China is offering
the United States sweeping market openings in
exchange for normal trade relations to
facilitate its entry into the World Trade
Organization ... It has not only promised to
lower industrial tariffs but open sectors such
as banking and insurance, which until now have
been out of bounds for foreign investors. ....
it is possible that China could be accepted into
the W-T-O without permanent normal trade
relations status. ... Nor would denying normal
trade relations help the cause of human rights
in China. ... Handing China normal trading
status and its subsequent accession into the W-
T-O would help further entrench the market
reforms that the country has already adopted.
It is no coincidence that the president ... of
Taiwan has also called upon the United States to
normalize trade ties with the mainland.
Congressional Democrats ought to heed his call
..
/// OPT ///
TEXT: That was the view of the Detroit News. Lastly,
The Philadelphia Inquirer says that if critics of
China's human rights policy prevail, and the
normalizing trade vote fails, the result may well be a
"backfire," that will have exactly the opposite from
the desired effect.
VOICE: With a close vote looming, the Clinton
administration and congressional supporters have
shaped up a plan for a high-powered commission to
monitor China's future performance on human rights,
labor issues and fair trade. That's a positive way to
pursue economic sense with China without disregarding
valid concerns about its sorry record on human rights.
/// END OPT
TEXT: On that note, we conclude this sampling of
opinion on this week's Congressional vote on permanent
normal trade relations with China.
NEB/ANG/gm
22-May-2000 16:14 PM LOC (22-May-2000 2014 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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