Craig Williams PNTR debate memo to Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. and S. L. K., May 9, 2000

Memo To: RLE, SLK From: Craig Williams Subject: PNTR debate Date: May 9, 2000 RLE is currently under a lot of pressure to vote in favor of PNTR with China. The next time that he finds himself confronted with someone favoring PNTR, he might ask them to defend these points on how China currently contradicts U.S. understanding of the WTO trade agreement with the United States. If China cannot even interpret the WTO agreement in good faith, why should the United States believe that it will suddenly open its markets to American goods? The only way to send a message of displeasure on this and the other areas of concern (current huge and growing trade deficit, illegal technology transfers, human rights abuses, military aggression toward Taiwan, theft of U.S. intellectual property rights, and nuclear proliferation) is to vote against PNTR at this time. One has to really question whether the WTO agreement will mean anything if Congress passes PNTR because China uses different “expressions” to characterize the WTO agreement any way it likes. It means nothing to them but a symbol of international acceptance, not a binding agreement, as the statements below indicate. Their accession to the WTO and gaining PNTR is China’s “coming out” party - its emergence on the international stage. If Congress refuses PNTR, it will send a signal to China that a majority in the U.S. Congress do not trust China nor do they condone much of its behavior. Sending this message is what this vote is about. Can PNTR supporters explain these statements? Wheat ♦ "China will import all types of U.S. wheat from all regions of the U.S. to all ports in China . . - Administration Summary of the U.S.-China WTO Agreement. February 15, 2000. ♦ "it is a complete misunderstanding to expect this grain to enter the country . . . Beijing only conceded a theoretical opportunity for the export of grain." - China's chief WTO negotiator, South China Morning Post. January 7, 2000. Insurance ♦ "China agrees to award licenses (to U.S. insurance firms) solely on the basis of prudential criteria, with no economic needs test or quantitative limits." Administration Summary. ♦ "Even after accession to the WTO, Beijing reserved the right to block licenses for foreign insurance companies if their approval seemed to threaten stability of economic policy.'" Chairman of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, Financial Times. Nov. 19, 1999.