World IN BRIEF : CHINA : Premier Warns U.S. on Trade Benefits
Premier Li Peng warned that economic reform and China’s opening to the West would suffer greatly if Washington scrapped China’s most-favored-nation trade status. In a speech in Beijing, Li also said China is ready to participate actively in negotiations for a “fair and reasonable” agreement limiting weapons sales. Congress has threatened to block President Bush’s renewal of China’s trade benefits over human rights and arms-sale issues. In Washington, Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell proposed a scaled-back set of conditions for maintaining the trade status.
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