Clinton Links Hong Kong to China’s U.S. Trade Status

WASHINGTON — President Clinton on Saturday stepped up his campaign to persuade Congress not to block renewal of normal trade privileges for China, warning that to do so would only hurt Hong Kong, which will revert from British to Chinese rule in two weeks.

In his weekly radio address, Clinton warned bluntly that “no step would more clearly harm Hong Kong” politically than reversing the course the U.S. has followed for years and denying China the same trade privileges that the United States extends to most other countries.

He also said that revoking China’s trading status once Hong Kong reverts to Chinese rule would deal a severe economic blow to the colony, eliminating 85,000 jobs there. Clinton announced he was extending China’s most-favored-nation trading status a month ago; lawmakers are expected to vote this month on the president’s action.

Opponents of renewing MFN for China have argued that the move would effectively let Beijing off the hook for its human rights violations and would appear to countenance its labor and environmental policies.

Some also complain that China is not buying enough American exports and has been too slow to protect U.S. companies’ trademarks and copyrights. The U.S. trade deficit with China was about $39 billion last year.

The primary objection to the renewal of trade privileges comes from a group of conservative Republicans led by Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Clinton also faces opposition from a sizable group of liberal Democrats led by House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.). Gephardt, who is expected to seek the Democratic presidential nomination in 2000, has been a hard-liner on key trade issues.

But Clinton argued Saturday that while he shares their goals of promoting human rights and fair trade in China, revoking Beijing’s trading privileges would only make China more isolationist and would “set back these goals, not achieve them.”

“Expanding normal trading status is not a referendum on China’s policies--it’s a vote for America’s interests,” the president said. He noted that Hong Kong’s leaders, including Chris Patten, the colony’s outgoing British governor, have endorsed the extension.

Clinton noted Saturday that more than 1,000 U.S. companies operate in Hong Kong--a presence that he said makes the area “the heart of American business in the fastest-growing part of the world.”

The United States has been granting the trade privileges to China since 1980, after the normalization of relations between the two countries. Unlike those of other U.S. trading partners, however, they have been granted for only one year at a time.

Although a simple majority in both houses of Congress could block the renewal of China’s MFN status, opponents would need a two-thirds majority in each house to make their action stick in the face of an expected veto.

Republicans did not mention the issue in their formal “response” to the president’s address Saturday. Instead, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) used the radio time to urge Clinton to support the tax-cut package and spending cuts the GOP has proposed.

“This is no time for . . . confused signals and mixed messages,” he said.