On October 10, the President signed a bill to extend Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) to China. I strongly supported this legislation which passed the House on May 25 by a vote of 237 to 197.

Formalizing a freer trading relationship with China will help American employees and employers alike. For China, PNTR will promote democracy, a better standard of living, and ultimately improve human rights.

PNTR is a necessary step towards China's full membership into the World Trade Organization (WTO). Members of the WTO agree to be governed by a set of rules allowing for a relatively open trading relationship among them.

For China to complete its accession to the WTO, it will have to change many of its laws, institutions and policies to make them conform with international trade rules. China must complete negotiations with the WTO, and separately with its various trading partners within the WTO, including the United States.

China is the world's third largest economy after the United States and Japan, and the largest not a member of the WTO. It has the world's 10th largest trade economy. If we fail to pass PNTR, our economic competitors in Europe and Japan will have greater access to this huge and still-growing Chinese market
-- while our own access will still be blocked.

American business can compete anywhere in the world and win -- if it is given a relatively level playing field. The Bilateral Agreement signed in November 1999 forces China to remove protectionist barriers to its markets, while protecting import-sensitive American industry from a flood of new Chinese imports.

The United States has made no significant concessions to China, because we already have few barriers to our market. The Agreement gives our business equal access to the Chinese market. The American export sector -- which already accounts for 11 million jobs -- will be strengthened further.

According to most experts, China is on the verge of huge infrastructure expenditures over the next few years as it attempts to catch up with Europe, Japan, and the United States. Most of these projects will be contracted to Western firms. This could be a boon to southwestern Connecticut. In 1998, the Stamford-Norwalk area alone exported $86 million worth of goods to China.

There are some in Congress and throughout our country who want to deny PNTR to China to punish it for its terrible human rights record. But closing off China will not bring any improvement in the way it treats its citizens. An isolated China will continue to repress its population and forestall the onset of democracy and freedom.

A nation cannot engage in free trade without educating its citizens. The more educated a country's citizens become, the more they want and are empowered to demand an open society and freedom. In truth, the most subversive action we can take towards the oppressive Chinese regime is to encourage free trade.

Communist hardliners argue the defeat of PNTR will make it easier for them to thwart the movement towards democracy and capitalism. In the absence of interaction with the United States, these hardliners will be able to restrict communication, stop foreign travel, and pull the plug on the Internet. Reform will whither on the vine.

Taking a look at recent history, Communist dictatorships that had interaction with the West -- the Soviet Union, Poland, Romania and Hungary -- are dead. Those shut off from the rest of the world -- Fidel Castro's Cuba and Kim Jong Il's North Korea -- are still brutalizing their citizenry.

For me, the issue is clear. PNTR is essential to our full participation in the emerging economy of the future. We win access to Chinese markets. China becomes exposed to the type of information and prosperity that builds democracy and freedom.

Candles gave way to electric lights. The horse and carriage gave way to the automobile. Typewriters gave way to word processors and computers. We cannot repeal the law of gravity. We are in a world economy, and China is a large and vital part of that economy. Permanent normal trade relations with China should be approved by Congress and welcomed by all Americans.

Hot Issue Archive