US Congress Urged to Grant China PNTR

U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky urged Congress in News York Tuesday to grant China Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR)status so as to clear the way for Beijing's accession to the World Trade Organization(WTO).

told The New York-based Asia Society that China's accession to the WTO and PNTR is "one of the most important American trade and foreign policy goals."

Ambassador Barshefsky led the American negotiation team to Beijing last November and reached a landmark agreement with China.

The Clinton administration, along with business leaders, has launched a lobby campaign to win a Congress vote. But some key lawmakers warned that time was running out for the vote this year.

Barshefsky said in Washington Monday that the White House would submit legislation "shortly" asking Congress to provide China with permanent trading privileges in the United States rather than wait for the European Union to reach a deal with Beijing.

"In the most basic sense, when we consider China's WTO and permanent Normal Trade Relations, we are facing a clear choice," said at a luncheon hosted by the Asian Society.

"China is the world's largest country, and over the past decade the world's fastest-growing major economy. The future course of our relationship will have great bearing on American security and strategy in the 21st strategy," she added.

She also holds that China's accession to the WTO and PNTR would go far beyond trade and economic benefit to enhance China's reforms and improve its human rights records.

China believes that it was a win-win deal, hoping that larger American share of China's market will lead to more Chinese exports to the American. It appeared that the deal was gathering support at Capitol Hill despite strong opposition from labor unions.

The labor organizations fear that more American workers would lose job in the face of streams of cheap foreign commodities. However, Barshefsky argued that the consequence would be the opposite.

"A New and fundamentally improved trade relationship with the world's largest country, which offers practical, concrete benefits to communities throughout America: stronger guarantees of fairness for our working people and businesses; new export opportunities that mean jobs and growth," she said.

Free-trade Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. Senate has urged Barshefsky to submit the trade legislation so lawmakers could begin their deliberations. Any delay could bog the agreement down in heated election politics, they warned.

In return, the White House asked the Republican-dominated Congress to grant China the PNTR status, pressing for a vote in May or sooner, if possible.

Barshefsky believed that the vote should not be affected by the ongoing EU-China WTO negotiations because, as she said, the U.S.-China deal forms the basis for China's accession." Congress certainly has the full means to vote on the basis of our agreement," she added.

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