WIRE:05/23/2000 13:36:00 ET
UPDATE 2-Supporters say US-China trade deal won in Congress
WASHINGTON, May 23 (Reuters) - Despite fierce opposition from organised labour, a hotly contested China trade bill appeared on Tuesday to be headed for passage by a narrow margin as its Republican and Democratic backers picked up support from a dwindling pool of undecided U.S. lawmakers.
"We've got the votes. We've won," said Virginia Democrat James Moran, who has assisted in counting his party's support for the bill in favour of granting permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) to China.
Republican vote-counters said they were confident they would deliver nearly 150 votes, and possibly more, in a make-or-break vote expected late on Wednesday in a deeply divided House of Representatives. Lawmakers said they want to start the debate later on Tuesday.
House Republican Leader Dick Armey of Texas told a Capitol Hill news conference: "I expect to pass that bill."
Final passage of the trade bill -- which the White House calls its number one legislative priority for Clinton's final year in office -- would do away with annual reviews of Beijing's trade status and permanently guarantee Chinese goods the same low-tariff access to U.S. markets as products from nearly every other nation.
China would, in turn, open a wide range of markets, from agriculture to telecommunications, to U.S. businesses under the terms of a landmark trade agreement signed in November 1999 ushering China into the World Trade
Organisation (WTO).
The top Democratic vote-counter -- California Representative Robert Matsui -- said his goal of 70 to 80 supporters was finally within reach, even as labour unions launched a final lobbying blitz targeting undecided Democrats with dire warnings that passage of PNTR would undermine human rights in China and cost hundreds of thousands of American workers their jobs.
If Republican and Democratic supporters meet their goal, they will surpass the 218 vote-threshold for passage in the 435-member House. PNTR already enjoys broad bipartisan support in the Senate, where approval is expected in June.
But the bill's opponents were defiant. David Bonior, the House's number two Democrat and a leading PNTR opponent, said opponents of the pact were in striking distance of defeating it. "Nobody has the votes yet. We can beat this thing."
President Bill Clinton, leading the push to pass the bill, said he hoped the China trade bill would attract bipartisan support.
"Our country fought three wars in Asia in the last half century. We ought to give our children a chance to have a different 50 years ahead of us," he said at a White House ceremony on helping impoverished U.S. communities.
The opposition to the bill, led by organised labour, wants Congress to keep the annual reviews in place to put pressure on Beijing to improve human rights and labour standards.
CLINTON'S PARTY DIVIDED
Though allied with the White House on most legislative issues, trade bills have long divided Clinton's party and two-out-of-three Democrats in the House were expected to vote against PNTR in a show of support for labour unions, a key constituency ahead of the November congressional election.
But the trade bill is backed by the White House, the business community and the Republican majority in Congress, as well as by Republican and Democratic presidential candidates -- Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore.
Supporters say the pact would spur economic and eventually political reform in Beijing and benefit U.S. companies eager to tap into the vast Chinese marketplace, potentially the world's largest with 1.3 billion consumers.
In the countdown to the vote, opponents and supporters say the last-minute decisions of lawmakers who remain undecided will be all-important. The White House and its allies hope to pick up a large number of them.
To that end, the Chamber of Commerce said it has assigned lobbyists to every uncommitted member and has promised to hound each of them over the next 24 hours.
The trade bill picked up support on Tuesday from New York Republican Representative Sherwood Boehlert. Congressional aides said they expected six Democrats, including New York Representative Gregory Meeks, to back the White House later in the day.
Hoping to lure a few undecided lawmakers, Clinton presented an agreement with Republican leaders at the White House ceremony on a zero capital gains tax rate and other credits to attract investment into selected poor U.S. communities.
Administration officials hope the initiative will help bring Black and Hispanic lawmakers on board for PNTR.
But the announcement of the measure earned only derision from the China trade bill's opponents, who argue that more U.S. jobs will be destroyed by PNTR than created by this initiative for poor U.S. communities.
"They're going to need a lot of empowerment zones after this vote," Bonior said.
The White House is also negotiating with a small group of lawmakers who have demanded special favours in exchange for backing PNTR in one of the biggest legislative battles of the Clinton presidency.
The White House called reports of horse-trading "grossly exaggerated," saying the key to passage would be a human rights commission, proposed by Democratic Representative Sander Levin of Michigan and Republican Doug Bereuter of Nebraska and backed by the House Republican leadership last week. |
