One Step at a Time With China

As early as Thursday, the Senate will vote on landmark legislation to grant China permanent normal trading relations, eliminating a year-to-year congressional vote that China regards as humiliating. The measure, however, is threatened by potentially fatal amendments, backed by opponents of closer U.S. trade ties to China. The concerns these legislators have--Beijing’s poor human rights record, sales of weapons of mass destruction to Iran and Pakistan and the bullying of Taiwan--are valid. Dealing with the issues as part of trade legislation that took years to negotiate is not. The Senate should vote a clean China trade bill.

Even critics of Beijing’s policies agree that the bill, which paves the way for China’s entry into the World Trade Organization, benefits both countries. It would open China’s markets to U.S. exports and investment and force Beijing to adopt economic reforms it would otherwise not make. As a WTO member, China would be subject to reams of trade rules, and any of the organization’s 138 members could demand that a rule be enforced. This, more than anything else, would spur the development of a market economy in China.

Any Senate amendment would send the measure back to the House of Representatives, which approved it last May in a highly contested vote. With only about three weeks remaining in this session, the chances the measure would pass the House again are slim. In addition, under WTO rules permanent trading privileges must be granted unconditionally.

The Senate Tuesday rejected several amendments that would have tied permanent trade relations to human rights guarantees and other restrictions, but it still faces an amendment introduced by Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) calling for unilateral U.S. sanctions against foreign companies and nations dealing in weapons of mass destruction. That amendment too should be rejected.

China’s membership in the WTO would not resolve the many challenges the U.S.-China relationship poses for Washington. But it would mark a big step in the economic transformation of China and open the country to Western influences. The trade measure deserves a quick, clean Senate approval.