U.S. Considers Backing Taiwan Role in GATT : Pacific Rim: The Administration is weighing a policy change to win congressional support for extending China’s trade benefits.

The Bush Administration is considering the possibility of a “summer surprise” aimed at winning congressional votes for extending China’s trade benefits--a change in U.S. policy that would support Taiwan’s quick admission to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.

At a breakfast meeting with Times reporters Wednesday, U.S. Trade Representative Carla Anderson Hills said U.S. support for bringing Taiwan promptly into the GATT is “under scrutiny” within the Administration. Hills acknowledged that “the People’s Republic of China will be unhappy” with that prospect.

Admission to GATT, the organization that administers the world’s trading system, has been one of Taiwan’s top foreign-policy priorities for years. It would bring tangible economic benefits and a degree of symbolic international recognition for Taiwan, which China has long regarded as a renegade province.

China has strongly opposed Taiwan’s entry to the trade group before the Beijing government itself is admitted. And U.S. officials have said China is a long way from qualifying for membership under GATT’s free-market principles.

The Bush Administration has gone along with Beijing’s position. But in recent weeks, some senators and House members have indicated that they might be willing to vote for extension of China’s trade benefits this summer as part of a compromise in which the Bush Administration would endorse Taiwan’s admission to GATT.

Bush has recommended an unconditional extension of China’s most-favored-nation trade benefits, which allow China to export goods into the United States at the same low tariff rates enjoyed by most other countries. But a number of congressional critics favor either eliminating these trade benefits or attaching conditions upon them to show U.S. unhappiness with China’s human rights and weapons’ proliferation policies.

Hills said the Administration is rethinking the issue. “I would certainly think that by considering the admission of Taiwan, a signal might be sent to China that progress toward political and economic liberalization is rewarded with a seat at the table that is attended by civilized nations.”

In the 1980s, Taiwan’s efforts to join the GATT were mired in old disputes about whether its admission might amount to improper recognition of it as an independent country.

Last year, however, Taiwan filed a new application to the trade group membership not as a sovereign country but as a customs union. Hong Kong is among customs unions previously admitted to GATT.

Hills said Wednesday that Taiwan has submitted “a very good application for admission” to GATT. “It’s as a customs union, which should, at least in part, circumvent the political issue of whether they’re part of China,” she said.

Meanwhile, the House Ways and Means Committee voted Wednesday to extend China’s most-favored-nation trade status for another year but placed strict conditions on any extension after this year. The conditions involve China’s policies on human rights, nuclear and missile exports, abortion and China’s membership in GATT.