South China Morning Post fronting a story that Bush is calling for renewed normal trade relations with China:
>>Bush wants to renew China trade status
REUTERS in Los Angeles
Updated at 8.41am:
President George W. Bush said on Wednesday (HK time) he would ask
Congress this week to renew normal trade relations with China, as he seeks
to jump-start a stalled trade agenda in the face of a Democratic takeover of
the Senate.
In a speech to the World Affairs Council of Los Angeles, Mr Bush made
clear he wanted free trade with China despite strained relations with Beijing
triggered by the communist-ruled nation's holding of the 24-member crew of a
US surveillance plane in April.
''Open trade is a force for freedom in China, a force for stability in Asia, and a
force for prosperity in the United States,'' Mr Bush said. ''And this is not just
my personal view.
''The institutions and individuals in China who are the least friendly to freedom
are often the least friendly to trade - the institutions and individuals most
sympathetic to freedom are often the most friendly to trade,'' he said.
Mr Bush also made a case for his broader trade agenda. ''The United States
has been hamstrung at the world's negotiating tables for too long,'' he said. He
urged Congress to give him expedited trade negotiating authority, which
lapsed in 1994, and to approve trade agreements with Jordan and Vietnam.
''The growth of the world economy depends on world trade.
The growth of world trade depends on American leadership.
America will lead, toward freer trade and toward wider and more lasting
prosperity for ourselves and the world,'' Mr Bush said.
A congressional aide said Mr Bush was expected to submit the Vietnamese
trade deal to Congress early in June.
Mr Bush said he would ask Congress on Friday to renew China's normal
trade relations for another year.
Last year, the US Congress approved granting China ''permanent normal
trade relations'' status - putting it on a par with most US trading partners - but
the deal hinged on Beijing's entry into the World Trade Organisation.
Entry talks have dragged on and China is not expected to enter until early next
year, so Mr Bush must now seek a one-year extension of China's trade
benefits.
But winning renewal became more difficult with Vermont Senator James
Jeffords' decision last week to quit the Republican Party to become an
independent, enabling the Democratic Party to take control of the Senate by a
margin of 50 Democrats to 49 Republicans and one independent.
Many Democrats and their labour and environmentalist supporters are more
wary of trade deals than Republicans. They have insisted on strong labour and
environmental provisions in any trade agreement as a condition for support.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the China trade relations debate
would be ''an interesting test for the Senate to see if it is bipartisan''.
Aside from trade issues, relations with China have also been strained by the
dispute over a US spy plane forced to make an emergency landing in China,
Mr Bush's meeting last week with the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual
leader, and China's detention of US-linked academics.<<
china.scmp.com |
