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Haig, others see deal 'in a matter of weeks'
Tuesday, April 20, 1999
By BRUCE RAMSEY 
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
Seattle's trade community, which gathered yesterday to celebrate 20 years of trade with China, was told to keep its hopes up for getting China into the World Trade Organization.
And in Washington, D.C., trade officials said yesterday a team of negotiators led by Robert Cassidy, assistant U.S. trade representative, will be in Beijing Thursday to try to wrap up an agreement.
Retired Gen. Alexander Haig, now a consultant to China Ocean Shipping Co., told a luncheon sponsored by that company in Seattle that admission to the trade organization "will happen -- and it will happen in a matter of weeks or months, at most."
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said in prepared remarks read in her absence that "China's admission to the WTO should take place before the WTO ministerial meeting in Seattle" in November.
Li Zhaoxing, China's ambassador to the United States, said he hoped that China will participate in the WTO meetings here, because the group "would not be a complete world body" without it. Referring to the recent visit of Premier Zhu Rongji, Li said, "My premier has already made the greatest possible concessions."
Robert Kapp, executive director of the U.S. China Business Council, said after the luncheon that China and the United States "have come much closer than most observers had imagined possible." China has made concessions on things from banking services to Washington wheat and apples. But he added, "None of this is ours until the deal is signed."
Kapp, who formerly headed the Washington State China Relations Council, said the remaining issues include whether China will be considered a non-market economy under U.S. anti-dumping laws. That label makes it easier for U.S. competitors to block Chinese imports. Also at issue are protections of U.S. textile and steel industries against import surges.
Joseph Borich, executive director of the Washington State China Relations Council, said the Clinton administration "had heard a lot from the business community" since the administration walked away from a deal reached by its own negotiators. "I don't think there's that much distance between the two sides," he said. "My anticipation is that they may come to a conclusion in the next couple of weeks."
The more difficult step, Borich said, will be for Congress to modify the Jackson-Vanik Amendment to allow for China to have permanent normal trading status. "Under the best of circumstances, it's going to be a difficult fight, but not an impossible one," he said.
Recent charges that China has spied on the United States and illegally funneled money to the Clinton re-election effort have stirred up opposition to China among Republicans. Li denied the spying charge, saying in his speech that in Washington, D.C., "you hear far-fetched stories like China's stealing of nuclear technology. Here in the city of Seattle, you don't have such kind of nonsense."
Haig, who led the advance team for President Nixon's 1972 visit to Beijing, criticized anti-China talk among his fellow Republicans. "I think they're wrongheaded," he said. "They ought to take the trouble to visit China and see the changes that have occurred as a result of normalization."
P-I reporter Bruce Ramsey can be reached at 206-448-8391 or bruceramsey@seattle-pi.com
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