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 | Thursday, April 27, 2000, updated at 16:12(GMT+8) | ||||||||||||
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Clinton Meets Tung at the White HouseU.S. President Bill Clinton April 7 met visiting Tung Chee Hwa, the chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) of China, focusing on the U.S. legislation to grant the Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) status for China.After a half-one-hour meeting at the Oval Office, Tung told reporters that they talked about a number of "interesting issues" of common concern and the discussion was "useful." "We discussed the importance of the U.S. Senate and House passing the PNTR legislation. The PNTR legislation is obviously important for China, for Hong Kong," Tung told reporters. "I made the point that it is important for Hong Kong because we are in a beginning stage of economic recovery and China's accession to WTO (the World Trade Organization) will give Hong Kong economy a further boost," he said. Tung also told Clinton that passing the legislation will be very important for the United States. "It is in the America's business interests, it is in the America's labor movement interests because it will create more jobs in the America, it is in the America environmental groups' interests ... it is a win-win for everybody," Tung noted. Tung also explained to Clinton how well "the country, two systems" is successfully implemented in Hong Kong and how well the economy of Hong Kong has recovered from the financial crisis in Asia. Speaking at a briefing, White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said Clinton explained why he is pushing so strongly for normal trade relations. "He made the point that this was very good for Hong Kong, Taiwan and the region, as well as China and the United States," Lockhart said. The U.S. House of Representatives will vote during the week of May 22-26 on legislation granting PNTR to China and later the Senate will follow.
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