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Congress Weighs China Trade Status
The Associated Press, Thu 5 Apr 2001
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Some lawmakers urged caution Thursday over moves in the House to wipe out China's new normal trade status with the United States as a way to punish China for holding the crew of a U.S. spy plane.
``I think that's very premature and I think it could be counterproductive,'' said Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., a Senate Intelligence Committee member who strongly supported last year's law granting China permanent normal trade relations.
House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, D-Mo., said Thursday, ``I didn't totally agree with the policy on China PNTR, but we made a decision as a country. If we're asking them to live up to their obligations ... we ought to live up to ours.''
A U.S. surveillance plane collided with a Chinese fighter jet Sunday over the South China Sea. The Chinese pilot was lost; the crippled American plane made an emergency landing on a Chinese island. The plane and its 24 crew members are being held by the Chinese government.
Lawmakers rejected either a violent confrontation or a U.S. apology for the incident. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott dismissed the idea of an apology as ``absolutely ludicrous.''
But China's tourism industry could suffer a hit, at least in terms of congressional travel plans.
Senate Assistant Majority Leader Don Nickles, R-Okla., said he would postpone his planned trip to China with Oklahoma business and government leaders unless the situation was resolved, saying, ``If the crew is not released, we will not go.''
Others in Congress may back out of a separate China trip scheduled to start Saturday. And the trade status is up for grabs.
Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., who opposed granting China permanent normal trade relations last year, introduced a bill Wednesday to revoke it.
``A favored trading partner with our country would follow proper protocol and not continue to hold our service men and women, along with our equipment, after being asked for their return,'' said Hunter, who wrote the bill with Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo.
Chinese Ambassador Yang Jiechi said trade sanctions would hurt both countries, telling PBS' ``Newshour with Jim Lehrer'': ``Trade relations serve mutual interests. It's not a one-way street.''
Most of the Hunter bill's two dozen co-sponsors are Republican, and most voted last year against the law to end Congress' annual review of whether to extend China's normal trade status and to make it permanent instead.
Congress could end up dealing with the issue even if the repeal legislation goes nowhere. That's because the benefits flow to China only when it joins the World Trade Organization, and negotiations leading to that entry are bogged down.
If China isn't in the WTO by June, the Bush administration will have to decide whether to extend trade benefits for another year. That could trigger a battle in Congress.
``If the current situation continues much longer, I don't see how members of Congress could possibly vote to give China an extension of trade privileges,'' said Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., a free-trade advocate who supported last year's law.
Meanwhile, nine senators and 13 House members planning to take an eight-day Aspen Institute trip to China may be reconsidering.
``I think everyone is weighing their options,'' said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who met Wednesday with Ambassador Yang.
They met three years ago when Murray's father died while she was in China. Yang, then head of the foreign ministry's North American affairs bureau, came to her hotel room to express China's condolences. The personal relationship continues, she said.
``I told him that it was very important for all of us that our men and women be returned home'' to Whidbey Island Naval Air Station in her state, she said.
Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said despite numerous recent incidents, including China's detentions of scholars with U.S. ties, there appeared no likelihood the spy-plane impasse will go beyond diplomatic, and perhaps economic, pressure.
``We're not going to go to war over any of these instances,'' Graham said.
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