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Delay in US-China Bill Prompts Frantic Lobbying
US supporters of a landmark China trade bill warned on Wednesday that the pact was in peril after top US Republicans said a critical US Senate vote would likely be put off until September or later.
The White House refused to give up the fight for a vote this month on the US legislation, which would grant permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) to China, dispatching White House Chief of Staff John Podesta, US Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky and other top administration officials to Capitol Hill in hopes of reaching a compromise.
But US Republicans said prospects for a vote this month were fading as the White House and Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi sparred over a controversial measure that would impose sanctions on China for alleged weapon sales to other countries.
The White House and its Senate allies fear that Republicans will put the trade bill on hold until just before the November presidential and congressional elections in order to increase the pressure on the Clinton administration to accept their spending priorities and to hurt Democratic presidential hopeful Al Gore.
Gore's support for PNTR has put him at odds with organised labour, a key Democratic constituency that fears closer ties with China would lead to massive US job losses.
"We all have an interest in ensuring that this vote takes place soon," said White House spokesman Jake Siewert. "There's broad support for (PNTR), and we ought to get it done and not risk getting it caught up in the uncertainty of the fall elections."
BUSINESS GROUP REFUSES TO SURRENDER
Business lobbyists said an agreement still could be reached in talks scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, clearing the way for a vote next week on the sanctions measure, offered by Tennessee Republican Sen. Fred Thompson, followed by the trade bill.
"Senate procedures and tactics are so byzantine that I don't think it's time yet to run up the white flag," said Chris Padilla, director for international trade relations at Eastman Kodak Co. and spokesman for the Business Coalition for US-China Trade.
If talks break off and the China trade measure is put on hold until after a monthlong congressional August recess, business leaders warned that it could get bogged down in amendments, which would force the House of Representatives and the Senate to hammer out a final compromise which will need another round of vote in the House.
Even though the trade bill won House approval in May, it is unclear whether it would pass again so close to the Nov. 7 elections given the stiff opposition from organised labour.
Lott sought to play down the risk of delay. "I don't think it's as big a problem as some people feel it is," he said of a September vote. "The Senate is going to pass China PNTR. It's not a question of if. It's a question of when."
Key Republicans, including Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens of Alaska, have been pressing Lott for weeks to hold up PNTR until spending bills are completed for the fiscal year that begins October 1. That view has gained momentum in recent days, Republican leadership aides said.
Unlike the House, where two out of three Democrats voted against the measure, the trade bill enjoys broad bipartisan support in the Senate. Sixty-three lawmakers in the 100-member Senate said that they would vote in favour of PNTR, enough to beat back a vote-blocking filibuster.
Once approved by the Senate and signed into law by President Bill Clinton, the measure would end the annual ritual of reviewing China'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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