House Votes to Renew China’s Trade Status

The House voted Thursday to extend China’s most-favored-nation trading status for another year, despite an often emotional debate in which even some supporters of renewal criticized Beijing’s record on human rights and economics.

By a vote of 286 to 141, the House endorsed President Clinton’s May 31 decision on China’s trade status.

A vote by the Senate will not take place because both houses must pass resolutions of disapproval by two-thirds majorities to overturn the president’s decision.

The outcome was never really in doubt because Clinton and Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole supported renewal, agreeing that U.S. businesses would pay the heaviest price for interruption of normal Sino-American trade.

But a curious coalition of liberals and conservatives--led by California Reps. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach), Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) and Pete Stark (D-Hayward)--attacked China as a repressive dictatorship with predatory trade practices.

Immediately after it approved extension of China’s trade status, the House voted, 411 to 7, to approve a resolution directing four committees--International Relations, National Security, Ways and Means, and Banking and Financial Services--to conduct extensive hearings on U.S.-China relations before the end of this year.

Although the term seems to imply special treatment, most-favored-nation status means that Chinese goods enter the United States under conditions that apply to imports from most countries.