Copyright 2000 The Washington Post
The Washington
Post
May 24, 2000, Wednesday, Final Edition
SECTION: EDITORIAL; Pg. A36
LENGTH: 593 words
HEADLINE:
Reckoning With China
BODY:
THE CLINTON
administration suggests that Congress should bless China's entry into the World
Trade Organization because not doing so would anger the Chinese--as though
Beijing's emotions should determine the argument. It pleads that snubbing China
after long negotiations on WTO would make America seem untrustworthy--as though
Congress should automatically sign off on any deal an administration presents to
it. Finally, the administration declares that expanded trade will lead China
inexorably toward democratization and better human rights. This may prove right
in the long run, but it's by no means certain.
Nevertheless, the House
should say yes to permanent normal trade relations today,
because there are better arguments to be made--and because the administration's
opponents are even less convincing. China will enter the WTO with or without
congressional blessing. Once it does so, it will grant easier access to its
markets to other WTO members who have approved permanent normal trading status
for China. If Congress votes yes, the United States will benefit. If it votes
no, only its economic competitors will benefit. Labor unions and other opponents
of a yes vote argue that the United States will not be hurt because China will
ignore this year's vote and honor an obscure 1979 trade deal instead. This is a
stretch, both legally and politically.
Moreover, the benefits that China
offers are substantial. Whereas the deal does not require the United States to
cut a single tariff or quota, China is cutting scads of them. The unions claim
that the promised export opportunities will prove illusory, because China will
not honor the agreement. But even a deal honored only in a patchy manner would
help American business more than no deal. More plausibly, the unions argue that
U.S. corporations will take advantage of China's openness more in order to build
factories there--and export back to the United States--than to send U.S.-made
products to China. Some of both undoubtedly will occur. Even so, allowing Airbus
rather than Boeing to export from China won't do American workers any good.
Finally, Congress accomplishes nothing by withholding permanent normal
trading status. Until now, such status has been granted annually, and human
rights organizations argue that an annual vote gives Congress influence over
China's behavior. But Congress has never denied China normal trade relations,
not even in the wake of the Tiananmen massacre. The threat of doing so has not
improved Chinese behavior. Once China is inside the WTO, congressional trade
threats are even less likely to work. China would be able to retaliate with
sanctions of its own--and it would be able to wave a legal opinion from the WTO
in support of its behavior.
China's dictatorship bullies and tortures
its own people and habitually threatens America's allies in Taiwan. It may well
pose a growing military threat to U.S. interests as its economy develops.
Congress should resolve to deal with those issues in meaningful ways. When China
jails dissidents, the United States should protest forcefully. When China
threatens Taiwan, the United States should reaffirm its tacit commitment to
defend it. But when China opens its economy, the United States can afford to
respond positively. Congress should ignore the administration's bad arguments
and vote to give up the annual trade review because it achieves nothing. And
Congress should welcome the real benefits to American corporations and workers
that would come from expanded Chinese trade.
LOAD-DATE: May 24, 2000
