China’s Normal Trade Status Will Be Renewed, Bush Says

President Bush said Tuesday that he will renew for another year the provisions that give China the same trade advantages that the United States gives most other nations.

In a speech on trade and energy to the Los Angeles World Affairs Council, Bush presented the decision as one that will help bring democracy to China.

“Open trade is a force for freedom in China, a force for stability in Asia and a force for prosperity in the United States,” he said.

The move, to take effect June 1, was expected because of the president’s emphasis on reducing barriers to trade and using economic pressure to encourage China’s economic and political modernization.

“We trade with China because trade is good policy for our economy, because trade is good policy for democracy and because trade is good policy for our national security,” Bush said.

Critics, however, argue that the United States should withhold the trade status to put pressure on China to improve its performance on human rights issues.

Bush singled out the advantages that trade brings to California, saying that “when the world trades in freedom, it buys what California sells.”

China has already been granted permanent status as a normal trading partner of the United States, but until it is admitted to the World Trade Organization, the president must annually decide whether to renew that status.