Text: Senator Baucus Urges "Yes" Vote on China PNTR
(Senator Baucus statement on PNTR debate)Senator Max Baucus (Democrat of Montana) urged fellow senators to support H.R. 4444, the bill that would grant China Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) status with the United States, in his September 6 opening statement of the Senate's PNTR debate.
Rejection of PNTR, Baucus warned, would be seen by the Chinese as "an American policy decision to isolate them, to impair their growth and development, and to prevent China from emerging as a great regional power."
The goal of U.S. policy, he said, should rather be "to incorporate China into the global trading system, to get them to follow the same rules that we all use in international trade, and to make them accountable to an international institution for their trade policies and trade actions."
Using an argument of supporters of expanded trade with the communist nation, Baucus stressed that the more China is integrated into the global economy, "the more responsibly" Beijing will act.
Following is the text of the statement:
(begin text)
Senator Max Baucus
Opening the Debate on Granting China
Permanent Normal Trade Relations Status
United States Senate
September 6, 2000As we begin the debate about whether to grant China permanent Normal Trade Relations status, PNTR, we need to remind ourselves what the Senate vote is all about. We are voting on whether American companies, American farmers, American workers, and American consumers will be able to take advantage of the new market opportunities afforded by changes that China will make over the next five years once it becomes a member of the World Trade Organization, the WTO. If we grant PNTR, China will have to give Americans all the benefits that we, and other WTO members, successfully negotiated after an arduous thirteen years. If we fail to grant China PNTR status, then our Japanese and European competitors will be able to do business in China in ways that will be unavailable to our exporters, our farmers, our manufacturers, our financial service companies, our Internet companies.
During the Senate debate this month, we will hear a lot about other issues, with Senators offering a plethora of amendments. The list will probably include human rights, worker rights, religious freedom, prison labor, Taiwan security, arms proliferation, and export of American jobs, among other issues.
Most, if not all, of these subjects are important ones that must be of concern to the United States Senate, and to all Americans. A number of issues that go beyond the strict granting of PNTR to China, such as human rights, monitoring and enforcement of Chinese commitments at the WTO, promotion of the rule of law, and Taiwan's accession to the WTO, are included in the bill we are considering. Other issues, such as proliferation and Taiwan security, are best dealt with apart from this legislation.
I share many of the concerns that some of my Senate colleagues will express over the coming days. But we are not voting on whether China is our friend. We are not voting about whether China should be an ally of the United States. And we are not voting about whether China should be a democracy or not.
To repeat, we are voting about whether American workers, farmers, and businesses will benefit from a decade-long negotiation, or whether we will allow our competitors in Japan and Europe to benefit while Americans do not.
That said, there are also broader implications involved in the Senate vote on PNTR. Let me mention a few.
First, a rejection of PNTR will be seen by China as an American policy decision to isolate them, to impair their growth and development, and to prevent China from emerging as a great regional power. Our intention should be to incorporate China into the global trading system, to get them to follow the same rules that we all use in international trade, and to make them accountable to an international institution for their trade policies and trade actions. The more China is integrated into the global system, the more responsibly they will act.
Second, a rejection of PNTR will likely lead to an indefinite delay in Taiwan's accession to the WTO. On the other hand, passage of PNTR will result in Taiwan's accession. What will happen after both China and Taiwan accede to the WTO? They will participate together, along with all other WTO members, in meetings ranging from detailed technical sessions to Ministerials. There will be countless opportunities for interaction. Under the WTO's most-favored-nation rule, they will have to provide each other the same benefits that they grant to other members. Taiwan's current policy limiting direct transportation, communication, and investment with the mainland will likely be found to violate WTO rules. Both will be able to use the WTO dispute settlement mechanism against the other. And WTO-induced liberalization, in both Taiwan and the PRC, will increase and deepen ties between them in trade, investment, technology, transportation, information, communications, and travel. It will promote stability across the Taiwan Strait.
Third, consider Chinese behavior once it joins the WTO. We should not expect to see changes overnight. Those people in business and government fighting to maintain their vested interests in the status quo will not disappear. The reformers will be strengthened, but they will still be under constant attack as the battle between the forces of reform and the forces of reaction continues. But it is certainly a vital interest of the United States to do everything we can to support those who favor reform over totalitarianism, those who favor private enterprise over state-owned enterprises, those who favor incorporating China into the global trading community over autarky. We need to engage China -- to promote responsible behavior internally and externally, to encourage them to play by international rules, to integrate the Chinese economy into the market-driven, middle-class, participatory economies of the West. China's entry into the WTO will help anchor and sustain these economic reform efforts and empower economic reformers. China will not become a market-driven economy overnight. But it is in our interest that they move in this direction, and the WTO will help the process.
I look forward to a vigorous debate, in the best tradition of the Senate. I urge all my colleagues to support this PNTR legislation without amendment.
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(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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