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US Business Presses for Senate Vote on China Trade Bill
Big business on Thursday stepped up pressure on Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott to schedule a final vote in July on a landmark China trade bill, warning that foot-dragging could hurt American companies and set back Sino-US relations.
"If PNTR (permanent normal trade relations) is lost ... America will pay the consequences for decades," US Chamber of Commerce President Thomas Donohue said in a joint statement with the National Association of Manufacturers, the Business Roundtable and the Information Technology Industry Council.
"PNTR is an essential national priority, not just for economic reasons, but because it will set the stage for US-China relations in the decades to come. It is important enough not to be delayed," said Samuel Maury, president of the Business Roundtable.
Lott of Mississippi says he expects the Senate to vote in July on the trade bill, which would grant permanent normal trade relations to China. But he has refused to set a date, insisting that the Senate first complete work on key spending bills to fund the federal government and vote on legislation to combat weapons proliferation by China.
PNTR has already won House of Representatives approval, and Senate passage is virtually assured if Lott brings the bill to the floor. Democrats have accused Lott of delaying the vote to maximize leverage on spending bills and to hurt presidential hopeful Al Gore before the Democratic convention in August.
Once approved by the Senate and signed into law by President Bill Clinton, the legislation would end the annual ritual of reviewing Beijing's trade status and guarantee Chinese goods the same low-tariff access to US markets as products from nearly every other nation.
In exchange for the trade benefits, China would open a wide range of markets, from agriculture to telecommunications, to US businesses under the terms of a landmark agreement signed in November 1999. That agreement was a major step in China's bid to join the World Trade Organisation.
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