The ailing US business sector hailed President George W. Bush's decision to grant permanent normal trade status to China, saying it will take the gamble out of dealing with the communist nation and emerging economic powerhouse.
Boeing Co, which ventured into China on the heels of then-President Richard Nixon's historic 1972 visit, took the news as a bright spot in an otherwise dreary time.
"It means that everyone can have confidence that tomorrow, next week or five years from now, we can all do fair business with China," said Fred Kelley, a spokesman for the Chicago-based aircraft maker.
The new trade status takes effect Jan. 1, Bush said Thursday.
Bush called the trade proclamation the "final step in normalizing US-China trade relations" and said it would open up the vast Chinese markets to billions of dollars in American goods.
Ma Dezhi, a spokesman for China's Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, said in Beijing that ``Bush was only doing what he ought to have done'' and declined further comment.
The normal trade status guarantees China the same low tariffs that many other countries pay.
Since 1980, China has enjoyed temporary normal trade relations with the US under annual presidential waivers of the law. But each waiver has triggered debates in Congress over China's record on human rights and weapons proliferation abuses.
The last one occurred in July, when the House of Representatives voted 259-169 to approve Bush's waiver this year, the last that will be necessary.
The US has struggled over China's trade status for almost a quarter-century, with factions of both political parties arguing that the Beijing needed to improve its human rights record before normal trade was considered. But supporters argued that China would be better influenced by an influx of American business brought on by normal trade relations.
That, and the admission that China may soon have production capabilities that rival the US, brought the issue to the fore.
Congress last year granted the permanent status to China contingent upon its entry into the WTO. China's application was accepted formally at the WTO's annual meeting last month in the United Arab Emirates.
"We desperately need to bring China into the fold and stop having silly spats that keep our relationship off track," said Richard Daisly, a professor of foreign trade and economics at Vanderbilt University and an adviser for media giant AOL Time Warner.
"Every step China has ever made toward opening up its society has come because it has sought economic benefits for its people. We must continue to show them that opening up to the world has benefit," Daisly said.
Kelley said China's status was a thorn in Boeing's side for years.
"Stability is key in our business," he said. "We must look 18 to 24 months ahead in terms of building parts, planes and servicing them. It has been difficult for China to make such agreements when they don't know if they would have an export license the following year or whether the United States would allow the planes to be delivered."
Some economists said the decision reflects a need to repair the country's relationship with China, after the incident earlier this year when the crew of a crashed US spy plane was held for a short time in China.
"We may not like China and Bush may like communism even less, but the day is coming when any product will be manufactured in China more cheaply than anywhere else," said Chalmers Johnson, a former professor of economics at the University of California, Berkley. "We are merely reacting in a way that will hopefully benefit us ? You can't fight the tide."
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