China trade bill supporters optimistic
Opponents plan protests in Washington
MSNBC STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
WASHINGTON, April 9 ? Despite protest plans by labor unions, supporters of trade privileges for China increasingly sense they will prevail. ?I think we have the momentum, frankly,? said Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont. Trade advocates cite two developments: the scheduling of a House vote on the China trade bill in May and the rhetorical restraint shown by both China and Taiwan in the aftermath of Taiwan?s presidential election last month.
LABOR ORGANIZATIONS say 10,000 union activists will be in Washington this week to protest free-trade policies in general, and the China bill in particular.
Joining environmentalists, students and others, they plan demonstrations to coincide with the annual spring meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
A related rally was being held on the Mall in Washington on Sunday by religious activists demanding cancellation of debts owed by poor countries to the International Monetary Fund and other lending agencies.
DEBT CANCELLATION RALLY
According to the Network for Global Economic Justice, a coalition of groups advocating IMF reform, ?the debt burden of developing countries now stands at $1.7 trillion, of which $278 billion, or roughly 17 per cent, is owed to the World Bank and the IMF. The poorest countries, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa, are simply not able to meet their debt payments, while in many economically better-off nations development has been stymied while interest payments are made.?
Jim Wallis, a leader of Jubilee 2000, a group calling for debt cancellation, told a crowd at Sunday?s rally that ?this debt was lent by people who were not poor, it was received and benefited people who were not poor and those who now suffer from the debt are poor. That?s the moral fact.?
AFL-CIO AD CAMPAIGN
A Capitol Hill rally was set for Wednesday to protest the China trade legislation, which would grant Beijing permanent trading privileges in the U.S. market.
The AFL-CIO has been running television spots for two weeks in Washington and New York to protest the trade bill. The ads include excerpts of an interview with Chinese dissident and former prisoner Wei Jingsheng. The labor federation also says it will show the ads in select congressional districts during the April congressional recess.
Environmentalists to fight China trade pact. Bracing for this week?s protests, congressional sponsors of the China trade bill said they are not underestimating their job in building support for the bill. They hoped that House Speaker Dennis Hastert?s setting of a date, well in advance of the summer political conventions, would help sway undecided House Democrats.
Also, Beijing?s reluctance to intensify, or even to reiterate, its threat to use force against Taiwan if the island?s government continued its resistance to reunification talks helped calm congressional worries about a confrontation between China and Taiwan.
The restraint makes it less likely that the Senate will attempt to combine the China trade measure with a contentious bill to increase U.S. military ties with Taiwan. Such a linkage could have undermined support for the trade bill.
Compared to the difficulties faced in the House, Senate passage of the bill is ?a slam dunk,? Baucus said. The Senate is expected to begin debate on the bill later this month, long before the House debate.
Terms of the deal
The U.S.-China trade deal obligates Beijing to cut tariffs an average 23 percent. Among other things:
Main points:
? Foreign companies will soon be able to own 50 percent of joint telecommunications ventures.
? Foreigners may invest in Internet companies.
? China will double foreign film imports and share distribution revenues with foreign firms.
? U.S. banks can offer services to Chinese firms by 2002 and to individual Chinese by 2005.
? China will reduce tariffs on automobiles to 25 percent by 2006 from the current 80 to 100 percent.
? China will reduce agricultural tariffs to 14.5 from 15 percent and eliminate all export subsidies.
Bonior, D-Mich., is leading opposition among Democrats. House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., is officially undecided, while attempting to gather support for his own planned package of side agreements on proposed labor and environmental protections. The Clinton administration has warned that it will oppose putting conditions on China?s trade status.
The bill would extend to China the same low-tariff access to U.S. markets enjoyed by almost every other U.S. trading partner. China already has this access, but it must be renewed annually. The bill would end these annual reviews and ease China?s entry into the Geneva-based World Trade Organization.
Joining the White House are open-trade lawmakers and business groups.
GIVING UP LEVERAGE
But organized labor, environmental groups and some human rights organizations do not want to give up the leverage they contend they have over China with the annual reviews.
Rep. Robert Matsui, D-Calif., the top Democratic supporter of the bill in the House, hoped Hastert?s decision to set a votes will coax wavering Democrats or at least guard against further defections.
Still, Matsui said in an interview, ?I don?t want to discount the difficulty.?
Matsui predicts that between 70 and 80 Democrats will vote for the bill. While far short of the 90 to 100 votes that Republican leaders have challenged Democrats to produce, it could still lead to a victory ? if the bill is supported by about 150 Republicans, as is generally expected. For victory, 218 votes are needed if all 435 House members vote.
?I think we can prevail,? Matsui said.
Rep. David Dreier, R-Calif., chairman of the House Rules Committee and a leading supporter of the bill, also predicts ultimate victory. ?I am very confident that we are going to win,? Dreier said. However, he suggested, ?Democrats are trying to have it both ways.? |
