Gephardt Warns China Rights Abuses Peril Trade
House Majority Leader Richard A. Gephardt warned China on Saturday not to take lightly the possibility of its preferential trade status being canceled as punishment for human rights abuses.
As he spoke, Chinese and U.S. negotiators began an eleventh-hour round of talks to defuse a trade conflict over U.S. accusations of massive illicit Chinese textile shipments to the United States.
The Clinton Administration announced last week that deep cuts in China’s textile import quotas would take effect Monday.
Gephardt headed the third U.S. congressional delegation to visit Beijing this month to discuss human rights and other issues with top Chinese officials.
The visits come just before Congress is to hold hearings on whether to extend most-favored-nation trading status. President Clinton has linked its renewal to improvement in Beijing’s human rights record and must reach a decision by June.
Other delegation members quoted President Jiang Zemin as saying that Beijing “is going to make an effort” in the coming months to address Clinton’s concerns about human rights, the New York Times reported in today’s editions.
Jiang offered no details of such plans, the Times said. Gephardt made no reference to such an effort during his news conference.
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