China Trade Bill on Track for Senate Passage

The Senate on Wednesday cleared the way for final congressional approval of landmark legislation to bolster U.S.-China trade, shooting down a proposal to clamp down on Chinese-aided proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

The 65-32 vote against the anti-proliferation amendment put the China trade bill on track for Senate passage within several days. Then it would go to the White House for President Clinton’s certain signature.

Any successful amendment added by the Senate to the bill would force it back to the House, which approved the legislation in May after a lengthy, contentious debate and an all-out lobbying duel between business interests who want freer access to Chinese markets and labor unions who worry about the effect of such trade on U.S. jobs.

Another House vote so close to the Nov. 7 elections would put the legislation in jeopardy, many lawmakers said. But with the defeat of the anti-proliferation amendment, that scenario has all but vanished. While other proposed amendments are pending in the Senate, none is seen as a serious threat.

“This clears the decks. It’s the last hurdle,” said Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), a prominent backer of the push for normal trade relations with China.

The bill would end the annual congressional review of Beijing’s trade status with the United States--a procedure critics of China’s communist regime have used to assail its record on human rights. Despite such criticism, the United States and China have enjoyed normal trade ties since shortly after the two countries established formal diplomatic relations in 1979.

What has given urgency to the bill to end the annual review process is China’s expected accession to the World Trade Organization, a Geneva-based group of 138 nations that polices global trade rules. Countries that are members, including the United States, are supposed to grant all other members unconditional access to normal trade benefits, such as low tariffs. The current system of yearly review of China’s trade status would, in theory, violate that principle.

The Clinton administration, allied with business leaders and the Republican congressional leadership, also contends that the trade bill’s passage is necessary to ensure that China abides by terms of an agreement it reached last year to reduce commercial barriers for a wide variety of U.S. goods and services.

But some lawmakers from both parties argue that a more important issue than enhanced bilateral trade--national security--needs to be addressed in the U.S.-China relationship. And so Sens. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) and Robert Torricelli (D-N.J.) sponsored the China Non-Proliferation Act, which would have tightened U.S. review of the record of China and two other countries--Russia and North Korea--deemed potential suppliers of nuclear, biological or chemical weapons and missile technology to rogue states such as Iraq.

Thompson and Torricelli both support the China trade bill and sought for months to offer their legislation separately. Failing that, they proposed it Monday as an amendment to the trade bill.

Their measure would have required an annual review of the proliferation record of the three countries and required the president to order sanctions against those countries found to be proliferators of weapons of mass destruction.

The president also would have been allowed to restrict access to U.S. capital markets by countries found violating the agreement.