23 May 2000
House Rules Committee Takes Up Terms of PNTR Debate
(Amendments offered to protect Taiwan from Beijing attack) (1100) By Steve LaRocque Washington File Staff Writer Washington --The House Rules Committee took up the issue of the terms of the upcoming floor debate in the House of Representatives on legislation granting China Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) status May 23. The House vote on PNTR for China is set for May 24. The 13-member Rules Committee, chaired by Representative David Dreier (Republican of California) heard panels of fellow lawmakers offer amendments. The legislators wanted either to have their amendments incorporated into the current H.R. 4444 or be permitted to raise the amendments during floor debate. PNTR supporters wanted the legislation to be as unencumbered as possible, and not subject to amendment from the floor during debate. Under a "closed rule" the bill could be sent out of Committee to the full House where it would be voted either up or down, with no possibility of amendment. Proponents of the amendments said their amendments would strengthen the legislation and broaden the bill's backing. The Committee, nine Republicans and four Democrats, heard Representatives Douglas Bereuter (Republican of Nebraska) and Sander Levin (Democrat of Michigan) ask that their 61-page legislation be incorporated into H.R. 4444. The Bereuter-Levin legislation would create an Executive-Congressional Commission to monitor human rights in China. H.R. 4444, as amended in committee, deals mainly with protecting American producers from export surges from China. Bereuter said he and Levin had worked carefully to draw up legislation that would meet the "serious concerns" lawmakers had regarding China. The preferred procedure, Bereuter told the Committee, would be for the amendment to be part of an H.R. 4444 that would then be subject to a single up-or-down vote in the House. Levin, a proponent of PNTR, said it was important to respect the differences of opinion on the issue that has split both parties. China, he advised, represents both "opportunities and challenges." He cited the benefits of the trade deal negotiated between the United States and China in Beijing last year. Local content requirements, he said, are "out the window." The proposed Commission under the Bereuter-Levin amendment, he added, creates "an activist, high-level pressure point to help China move in the right direction on human rights." A "yes" vote on PNTR, Levin said, would help propel China into a better future, while a "no" vote would be seen as a "slap in the face" and create "chaos in our relations with China." He urged the Rules Committee to put the Bereuter-Levin amendment in the bill so there would be only one vote in the House. Representatives Phil English (Republican of Pennsylvania) and Benjamin Cardin (Democrat of Maryland) wanted an amendment to the legislation that would make the anti-surge protections in H.R. 4444 against China applicable to other countries as well. They also called for an amendment that would allow countervailing duties to be imposed on subsidized products from non-market economies. While Dreier said he was sympathetic with the problem they wanted to address, he told the lawmakers he didn't want to expand the focus of the legislation. A proposed amendment can be dismissed if it is found to be "non-germane" to a piece of legislation. Representative Edward Markey (Democrat of Massachusetts), along with Representatives Nancy Pelosi and Pete Stark (Democrats of California) called for an amendment that would ban Chinese assault weapons from being imported into the United States. In 1993, when importation was allowed, 1,000,000 Chinese-made assault rifles were imported into the United States, he said. These guns at $55 were "the gun of choice" in U.S. schoolyards, Markey said. Since the U.S. doesn't ban the sale of U.S.-made assault weapons, it couldn't ban Chinese weapons once that country is a member of WTO. He wanted language that would say there would be no PNTR approval put in place until the United States and China had negotiated an agreement that would prevent Chinese assault weapons from being exported to the Untied States. A second amendment offered by Markey would have sought to curtail China's role in exporting nuclear components, technology and training it received from the United States to third countries. Right now, Markey said, China only abides by the agreement not to export fissionable materials. Representative Nancy Pelosi offered her own amendment to say that PNTR for China would only go into effect when both Beijing and Taiwan have acceded to the WTO. The current legislation says that PNTR would come about on China's accession to the WTO. Pelosi listed China's successful effort to block Taiwan from the World Health Organization and its ability to block even a discussion of its human rights abuses in Geneva at the United Nations Human Rights Commission as reasons why it was best to tie PNTR for China to Taiwan's entry into the WTO. Representative Howard Berman (Democrat of California) offered an amendment that China would lose its PNTR if it attacked or blockaded Taiwan. He noted that China has always maintained its right to take Taiwan by force, adding that Beijing's rhetoric in the last six months has been more belligerent than in the 30 years previously. With that amendment's language in the PNTR legislation, Berman said, China would be told clearly that "if you exercise that military option, you lose access to the American market." Representative Brad Sherman (Democrat of California) joined Berman, saying "it sends the right signal." Sherman added that such an amendment would "broaden the support for PNTR." Berman said U.S. businesses are rushing to do business with Beijing no matter what human rights abuses or threats the communist regime made, and warned that if the House refused to even discuss such an amendment, it wouldn't be China's fault if it misread U.S. intentions, but rather "our own" for not having spelled out clearly to China that the United States would not put doing business with China ahead of all other concerns. The House, he told Dreier, should be allowed to vote on his amendment or have it incorporated into H.R. 4444. Dreier acknowledged Berman's concern, but was reluctant to see amendments to the PNTR legislation. The Rules Committee hadn't reconvened by the time the Washington File closed for Tuesday, May 23. The Committee had to decide on the amendments and the length and terms of the debate in the House May 24 on PNTR for China. (The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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