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Gorton OKs trade status for China
Thursday, April 22, 1999
By MICHAEL PAULSON
WASHINGTON -- U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton, one of the few elected officials from Washington state who has resisted granting most-favored-nation trade status to China, yesterday said he is now prepared to support permanent normalized trade relations with the world's largest nation.
Gorton, R-Wash., said he is modifying his position as a result of a conversation he had Tuesday with U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky, who outlined a series of concessions China has agreed to make if it is admitted to the World Trade Organization.
China is aggressively pushing to win entry to the organization before a new round of global trade talks is launched at a WTO meeting in Seattle in November.
Among the concessions China has agreed to are several that would affect important Washington state industries, including apple growers, paper producers, software manufacturers and Boeing. As a goodwill gesture, China has already agreed to drop its long-standing ban on importing wheat from the Pacific Northwest.
But the United States also would have to take a difficult step. If China is admitted to the World Trade Organization, Congress would have to agree to grant China permanent most-favored-nation trade status, which despite its name is the trade status enjoyed by all but a handful of U.S. trading partners.
"I haven't had to vote on most favored nation status for five or six years, but I've been opposed or very skeptical, because we were making our markets open and they weren't," Gorton said in an interview yesterday. "What I hope and believe is that that will no longer be the case."
Gorton said he does not believe that the issues of human rights, spying or Taiwan should be tied to the trade issue. He said if Barshefsky presents in writing the deal that she outlined to him Tuesday night, he will vote to grant China permanent most favored nation status.
"If what she outlined comes to pass, I would vote to ratify," he said.
Gorton now joins Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who has been a consistent champion of admitting China to the WTO, and the rest of the members of the state congressional delegation, as well as the state's most prominent business executives.
The only member of Congress from Washington who last year opposed normal trade status for China was former Rep. Linda Smith, a Republican.
Gorton's support was welcomed by several groups, including apple growers whose exports to China have been stymied by high tariffs.
"Slade stood firm, demanding that certain objectives be achieved before he would lend his support to China's entry into the World Trade Organization, and his position has largely been rewarded," said Kraig Naasz, president of the U.S. Apple Association and a one-time Gorton aide. "It's critical that the U.S. Congress now extend to China normal trade relations, because until that has been achieved, industries like ours won't be permitted to take advantage of the concessions China has made."
Patricia Davis, president of the Washington Council on International Trade, called the concessions agreed to by China "amazing."
"China came a long, long way," she said. "Sen. Gorton has been concerned about our deficit with China, and if this deal helps open our export markets, it should help to address that deficit."
U.S. negotiators are now meeting in China to resolve differences. But the negotiators already have resolved disagreements over the trade of agriculture and goods.
Among the concessions China has agreed to make to win admission to the World Trade Organization:
P-I reporter Michael Paulson
can be reached at 202-943-9229 or michaelpaulson@seattle-pi.com
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