Congress to vote on permanent trade with China

By Jennifer Hudson

Daily Bruin Contributor

The battle over United States trade policy with China has
provoked questions on human rights, U.S. jobs and long-term
economic goals among politicians and activists alike.

Congress will vote this week on whether or not to grant China
permanent normal trading relations. The United States currently has
normal trading relations with China ““ called most favored
nation status ““ but the agreement is voted on and approved
yearly by Congress.

In the permanent normal trading relations agreement, China has
made concessions by dropping its trade barriers against U.S.
imports in several economic sectors ““ including agriculture,
telecommunications and textiles.

“PNTR for China will increase America’s
competitiveness in the global marketplace, reduce tariffs, and give
American workers and farmers unprecedented access to China’s
more than 1 billion consumers,” President Clinton said in a
White House press release.

Despite Clinton’s ardent support of PNTR, the human rights
question has caused some to think twice about the agreement. Some
Americans are afraid that the United States will not be able to use
the annual trade agreement as leverage to gain minor human rights
concessions from the Chinese government, said Richard Baum,
director of the Center for Chinese Studies and a political science
professor.

“The truth is that their progress on human rights has been
dictated more by the dynamics and the logic of their own internal
development than by any pressure we exert every April when it comes
time to have the congressional most favored nation vote,” he
said.

Concern for human rights stems from China’s history and
its current lack of political pluralism. The government runs on a
single-party system and “can be quite ruthless in their
persecution of anyone they perceive to be a political
threat,” Baum said.

Also, working standards are not as high as they are in more
developed nations, especially the United States. There are concerns
that some of Chinese production is a result of prison labor.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said she believes human rights
in China will improve due to contact with the West and internal
prosperity generated by free trade.

She wrote in an opinion article for the L.A. Times, “As I
read history, political pluralism, respect for human rights, labor
rights and environmental improvements follow a country’s
interactions with others and achieving a level of economic
development and well-being.”

Steven Spiegel, professor of political science specializing in
American foreign policy, agreed with Feinstein.

“The best way to moderate Chinese policy, both at home and
abroad, in my opinion, is to have China as part of the world
economic community,” he said.

Baum added the issue is not that the United States should stop
criticizing any transgressions against human rights, “but the
idea that we should hold our economic and trade policy hostage to
the fate of a few dozen or maybe a few hundred at most political
prisoners is probably not good policy.”

The main opposition to the trade policy comes from labor unions
such as the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the AFL-CIO.
In addition to human rights concerns, unions are worried about a
loss of American jobs and a lowering of wages due to the opening up
of cheaper labor opportunities in China because of the PNTR
agreement. For Chinese workers, wages are often as low as $1 per
day, according to Working USA magazine.

“We applaud these members for listening to the voices of
working families and standing up for human and workers’
rights around the globe, despite President Clinton’s all-out
push to give the Chinese government a blank check to continue its
policies of repression and control,” said AFL-CIO President
John Sweeney of the Congress members opposing the agreement in a
statement.

But Spiegel said American labor interests will ultimately be
served by more open trade with China.

“I do not, in the long run, think it will cost American
jobs, I think it will add to American jobs, add to American
prosperity, and, most importantly, add to American security,”
he said.

Baum also takes this point of view. “The unions are
fighting to protect jobs that in the short run, it may be a useful
thing to do, but in the long run, those jobs are going to have to
be restructured anyway given the changing nature of the global
economy,” he said.

Granting permanent normal trading relations would also be
supporting China’s entry into the World Trade Organization.
But, Feinstein points out in her L.A. Times piece, China could join
the WTO without a yes vote from the United States.

“If they enter WTO, it will be on the terms that we
negotiated, but if we don’t extend them PNTR we won’t
enjoy those terms, everyone else will,” Baum said.
“That’s the ultimate irony.”

The WTO’s working group and a two-thirds vote of the
current WTO membership would allow China to join the organization,
regardless of U.S. policy.

On the subject of China’s entry into the WTO, Baum added,
“The whole purpose of the trade regime is to create an
accelerated flow of goods at equitable cost to the members. To try
to exclude the world’s 10th largest trading country from an
otherwise universal regime would be counter-productive.”

Clinton also showed how a free trade policy with China would be
compliant with the current U.S. policy of support for global free
trade.

“Free and fair international trade is one of the most
effective tools we have to bring people together, raise living
standards in developed and developing nations alike, promote human
dignity, and improve long-term prospects for democracy, stability,
and world peace,” he said in a White House statement.

The debate of the trade issue in the House is very close, and
both sides are bipartisan. According to an Associated Press survey
on Tuesday, 40 Democrats and 102 Republicans said they would vote
for the bill, while 105 Democrats and 35 Republicans said they
would oppose it. Among the undecided were 66 Democrats and 83
Republicans.

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, who represents the district
around UCLA is still undecided on the issue.

“He’s very concerned with human rights, but he also
supports free trade,” said Phil Schiliro, Waxman’s
press secretary and chief of staff. “There are people who say
that the WTO will help human rights in China while others say it
will cause human rights to deteriorate.”