PACIFIC BASIN ECONOMIC COUNCIL
MAIN PAGE | CLIPS | 1999 | U.S.TO RENEW

U.S. to renew China's Most Favored Nation trade status Mara Liasson All Things Considered/National Public Radio May 20, 1996 President Clinton announced that his plans to renew China's MFN trade status despite anticipated strong opposition from the right and left. He said trade with China is in America's best economic interests. LINDA WERTHEIMER, Host: This is All Things Considered. I'm Linda Wertheimer. NOAH ADAMS, Host: And I'm Noah Adams. President Clinton formally announced today he plans to renew most favored nation trade status for China. The announcement came sooner than expected. The president had until the third of June, the day he's required to tell Congress of his intention. Congress is expected to approve MFN, but not without a bitter debate during which Republicans will attack President Clinton's overall Asia policy. NPR's Mara Liasson reports. MARA LIASSON, Reporter: President Clinton came before the Pacific Basin Economic Council to make the announcement about China's trading status, but in his speech today he was also trying to answer a barrage of criticism from his rival, Senator Bob Dole. Pres. BILL CLINTON: When I took office, I had a vision of an Asia Pacific community built on shared efforts, shared benefits and shared destiny - a genuine partnership for greater security, freedom and prosperity. Given all the currents of change in the region, I knew then and I know now the road will not be always even and smooth, but the strategy is sound. MARA LIASSON: Senator Dole, who has not waivered from his career- long commitment to supporting MFN status for China, has argued that there is nothing steady or sure about President Clinton's dealings with the fast-growing economies of Asia or the security threats posed by countries like China and North Korea. Sen. ROBERT DOLE (R-KS), Majority Leader: Failures of leadership in Asia, such as coddling North Korea, lacking a strategic policy toward China and a conspicuous absence of the president in the debate over most favored nation status for China have eroded American power and purpose in the Pacific - no doubt about it. MARA LIASSON: Today the president entered the debate over most favored nation trading status for China. President Clinton is anticipating what his advisers call a tough fight in Congress. A coalition of lawmakers from the left and right, opposed to China's policies on forced abortions, human rights, nuclear proliferation and Taiwan want to deny China U.S. trade benefits. Today the president tried to get out in front of his critics. He cast his decision to renew MFN in simple economic terms. He said China was the fastest growing market for American exports. In 1995, alone, he said, U.S. exports to China rose 30 percent. Pres. BILL CLINTON: Revoking MFN and, in effect, severing our economic ties to China would drive us back into a period of mutual isolation and recrimination that would harm America's interests, not advance them. MARA LIASSON: Three years ago, when President Clinton first gave China MFN status, he said he would suspend it if China's record on human rights did not improve. It didn't, but one year later President Clinton went ahead and renewed the trading benefits nonetheless. Today President Clinton no longer argues that economic ties will help change China's behavior. Instead, he's pushing MFN as he would any other trade agreement. Without it, he argues, American business would be hurt Pres. BILL CLINTON: Rather than bolstering our economic interests, it would cede one of the fastest growing markets to our competitors. MFN renewal is not a referendum on all China's policies; it is a vote for America's interests. I will work with Congress in the weeks ahead to secure MFN renewal and to continue to advance our goal of a secure, stable, open and prosperous China. This is a long-term endeavor, and we must be steady and firm. MARA LIASSON: In the last three years, White House officials say, the Clinton administration has learned the limits of its leverage over China. JOSEPH NYE, Fmr. Asst. Secretary of Defense: I think in that sense, the rhetoric is now adjusted to the reality. MARA LIASSON: Joseph Nye [sp] is the former assistant secretary of defense responsible for Asia policy. JOSEPH NYE: I think the United States has to realize that China is a country of 1.2 billion people and it is not going to cry `uncle' when we want it to suffer a certain amount of pain. The Chinese dictatorship is not something that we admire, but I think the reality is that the change won't be as quickly as we would like to have it occur, but that you are not going to make it that much faster by abolishing MFN status. In the meantime, you will have penalized American workers and, at the same time, not have accomplished your objectives with China. MARA LIASSON: Expanded trade and economic growth, Nye says, will erode the grip of the Chinese dictatorship, but only over the very long term. Once the president officially notifies Congress on June 3rd that he intends to renew MFN, both houses will have 60 days to reject the trading status. The White House is optimistic that MFN will be extended, although White House officials say Congress could put conditions on the renewal. At the White House, I'm Mara Liasson. The preceding text has been professionally transcribed. However, in order to meet rigid distribution and transmission deadlines, it has not been proofread against audiotape and cannot, for that reason, be guaranteed as to the accuracy of speakers' words or spelling.