-Caveat Lector- WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War! Wednesday April 4 5:22 PM ET Lawmakers Target China Trade Status By CAROLYN SKORNECK, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - China's new normal trade status with the United States could be on the congressional chopping block as lawmakers vent their anger over China's refusal to free 24 crew members of a U.S. spy plane damaged in a collision with a Chinese jet fighter. Lawmakers rejected either a violent confrontation or a U.S. apology for the incident, but the trade status was up for grabs. Rep. Duncan Hunter (news - bio - voting record), R-Calif., who opposed granting China permanent normal trade relations last year, introduced a bill Wednesday to revoke the status. ``A favored trading partner with our country would follow proper protocol and not continue to hold our service men and women, along with our equipment, after being asked for their return,'' said Hunter, who wrote the bill with Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo. ``The fact is, while we trade with China, they prepare for war.'' The measure's two dozen co-sponsors are mostly Republican. Most of them, like Hunter, voted against granting China the preferred permanent status last year. Co-sponsors also include some lawmakers who voted for the new trade status, including Reps. Barbara Cubin, R-Wyo., and Terry Everett, R-Ala. Congress voted last year to end its annual review of China's trade status by granting normal trade status permanently. Congress could end up dealing with the trade issue this year even if the repeal legislation goes nowhere. That's because the permanent benefits only flow to China once it joins the World Trade Organization (news - web sites), and China's entry has yet to be completed. Negotiations are bogged down over terms. If China isn't in the WTO by June, the Bush administration will have to decide whether to extend trade benefits to China for an additional year. That could trigger a contentious battle in Congress. Rep. Spencer Bachus (news - bio - voting record), R-Ala., a free-trade advocate who supported last year's law, noted that if China has not joined the World Trade Organization by June 3, the law says Congress must vote on whether to continue normal trade relations. ``If the current situation continues much longer, I don't see how members of Congress could possibly vote to give China an extension of trade privileges,'' Bachus said. Sen. Bob Graham (news - bio - voting record), D-Fla., co-chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, predicted in an interview that the U.S.-China relationship will be the ``dominant foreign policy issue of the 21st century.'' Despite numerous recent incidents, including detentions in China of scholars with U.S. ties, there appeared no likelihood the spy-plane impasse will go beyond diplomatic, and perhaps economic, pressure. ``We're not going to go to war over any of these instances,'' Graham said. Barbara DiStefano of Staten Island, N.Y., sister of 31-year-old detained Petty Officer Kenneth Richter, told reporters a U.S. apology for the crash might be appropriate. ``If it's just a simple apology that's going to get them back, then that should be fine,'' DiStefano said before tying a yellow ribbon around an old elm tree near the Senate. ``But if it's an apology with conditions, then the United States government has to decide what they're going to do.'' Rep. Vito Fossella (news - bio - voting record), R-N.Y., who invited DiStefano, a constituent, to make her case on Capitol Hill, jumped in to reject that idea: ``The issue is not about apologies right now. The issue is about letting these sailors go.'' That view was echoed by Reps. Steve Buyer, R-Ind.; Peter King, R-N.Y.; and J.D. Hayworth, R-Ariz. A Hayworth constituent is one of the crew members in detention: Brandon Funk, 21, a surveillance specialist from Show Low, Ariz. - *COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for nonprofit research and educational purposes only.[Ref. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ] Want to be on our lists? 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