US President George W. Bush said he plans to renew for another year China's low-tariff trading privileges with the US, setting off a month-long debate in Congress over Sino-US relations.
"Open trade is a force for freedom in China, a force for stability in Asia, a force for prosperity in the United States," Bush said in a speech to the Los Angeles World Affairs Council. "The institutions and individuals in China who are the least friendly to freedom are often the least friendly to trade."
Opponents in the US Congress generally have 30 days to try to block the renewal of China's preferred trading status, under which most of its goods enter the US at low rates of duty.
The US and China have been at odds over the April 1 landing in China of a US Navy surveillance plane and Bush's statements that the US would do "whatever it takes" to defend Taiwan from a Chinese attack.
Failure to renew "normal trade relations" would result in duties on many Chinese products and disruption of trade and investment. The two nations did US$116 billion worth of trade last year, resulting in a record US$84 billion US deficit with China.
Bush said he would notify Congress on June 1 of his request.
Gao Wenfang, trade counselor at the Chinese embassy in Washington, said her government "certainly welcomes" Bush's decision. She acknowledged that "each year it is an ugly fight" in Congress.
"Nobody on either side can afford the risk of losing this trade status," Gao said. "There will be a hard fight for this trade status, but it will pass definitely."
In two decades, the legislators have never blocked a renewal of China's trade status -- but the debate gives critics of China's human rights record and trade practices an opportunity to voice opposition.
The renewal vote must be held because China hasn't yet joined the WTO. Last year, the Congress agreed to grant China "permanent normal trade relations," in what emerged as one of the most hard-fought legislative battles of the year.
That was to end the annual review of China's human-rights record as soon as the country entered the WTO.
China's membership in the global trade body has been delayed, though, and is not expected to occur until later this year or early in 2002, after final negotiations are concluded with the 140 WTO members on what level of support China can give its farmers.
The debate in Congress must be concluded by July 3. If the issue isn't voted upon by then, China retains its trade status.
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