-Caveat Lector- WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a prelude to war! Dear Brigade, Have you wondered what our U.S. Chamber of Commerce has been up to lately? - see below. GO BRIGADE GO!!!!!!!!! Linda --------------------------------------- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date sent: Thu, 9 Dec 1999 13:01:29 EST Subject: Chamber Threatens Congress Does anyone else get a sick feeling in the stomach when business groups threaten Congreesmen with "peril" if they don't vote a benefit for a foreign country? (see below) Especially when the foreign country in question has a bloody dictatorship that is busily arming itself to confront this country. And, when that military buildup is being aided greatly by the capital and technology provided by American corporations----some of which belong to Tom Donahue's group. Remember, it was Donahue who was "honored" to invite Fidel Castro to a Chamber of Commerce function in Seattle. Castro couldn't make it because of talk in the media of his possible arrest (there's no statute of limitation on mass murder----not that Donahue cares about Fidel's crimes) (or Beijing's). What does Donahue mean by election year peril? The American voter is not going to be upset because the Beijing regime didn't get a break. What he means is the Chamber won't give money to Members who think more about the national interest than the corporate interest. It's a proclamation of corruption, and that makes my blood boil. William Hawkins, USBIC -------------------------- No. 236 Thursday December 9, 1999 Page A-27 ISSN 1523-567X Regulation, Law & Economics International Trade U.S. Business Vows 'Helluva Fight' To Pass Permanent NTR for China The head of the largest business group in the United States threatened retaliatory action at the polls in the 2000 congressional elections for those who do not vote to extend permanent normal trade relations to China next year. Tom Donohue, chief executive officer of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said Dec. 8 American business would work "district by district" to persuade swing voters in 66 congressional districts to support permanent NTR. "This is not a free vote. You make this vote at your own peril," Donohue told reporters at the headquarters of the nation's largest business group. The remarks came shortly before President Bill Clinton admitted there would be bumpy road to permanently pass NTR with China, but vowed to fight to the bitter end to make sure Washington and Beijing enjoy the full benefits of the communist country's prospective accession to the World Trade Organization. "I'm going to make an all-out effort to pass it," Clinton told reporters at his final formal press conference for 1999 to emphasize his foreign policy achievements (see related story in this section). "I think it is plainly in America's interest. We gave up nothing in terms of market access to get this," Clinton told reporters in the Dean Acheson room of the State Department. "I think having China in a rule-based system for the international economy is profoundly important, and I think it would be a terrible mistake not to do it." Waivers Not Enough The United States and China Nov. 15 reached a bilateral agreement that paves the way for the Asian nation to join the 135-member WTO. Congress does not directly approve China's entry into the WTO, but extension of unconditional most favored nation status, the former name of NTR, is a prerequisite for countries to enjoy reciprocal benefits of the WTO membership. The Jackson-Vanik provision of a 1974 trade law requires a waiver of freedom of emigration requirements for nonmarket economies before NTR can be extended. Congress can make exceptions to Jackson-Vanik after annual review of American trade policy, and China has never been denied an exception since the law's inception. But the administration says the United States would not benefit from the concessions made by the Chinese under the agreement unless the United States extends permanent NTR, because a waiver is insufficient and contrary to WTO rules. Congress Wants Leverage Opponents of the trade deal with China feel emboldened by the mass protests by thousands of union, environmental, and human rights activists last week in Seattle, where trade ministers from the WTO failed to launch a new round of trade talks. The protesters have vowed to keep the annual debate as a means to keep China's human rights record visible. "The annual debate and the possibility of MFN [sic] revocation are arguably the most important leverage the United States still has to influence the human rights situation in China," said Rep. Chris Smith, (R-N.J.), the chairman of the House International Relations Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights. "Surrendering that leverage to Beijing would send exactly the wrong message at the wrong time," Smith said Dec. 8 at a hearing he convened to deliberate China's record on human rights and its prospective entry into the WTO. Business Questions Protestors' Glee Donohue also questioned the rationale for labor and environmental leaders who rejoiced when the Seattle talks ended in failure. "Labor and the environment may think they won. What did they win? Did they open markets for American products, did they create more jobs for unionized labor? Did they clean up the environment anyplace in the world?" Donohue asked. "They may have disrupted Seattle, but they didn't disrupt global trade. It's growing while we sit here." But he acknowledged the momentum opponents gained from Seattle would make his job to convince lawmakers to pass permanent NTR more difficult in the months ahead. "There'll be a helluva fight to get from here to there, but we've got to get everybody out working on it," Donohue said. "Those in the business community are going to have roll over, wake up and get out of bed and let's get going because we are going to have to put a lot of time and effort and energy and money into this," Donohue said. Clinton Served Up 'Dead Duck Soup.' Donohue blamed Clinton's remarks on WTO sanctions for countries that oppose labor laws as the catalyst that killed the negotiators' ability to compromise on the sensitive topic of getting working groups to discuss labor and environmental standards included in the WTO. Just before arriving in Seattle, Clinton made remarks strengthening the U.S. position on the inclusion of labor and the environment into the WTO rules that would have eventually called for sanctions against countries that do not meet international standards, an idea developing countries adamantly oppose. "Well, that was the end of that deal. Dead duck soup. Gone. Finished. You couldn't get a vote on that if hell froze over," Donohue said of Clinton's remarks, which dominated discussions in Seattle. At the press conference, Clinton defended his Seattle remarks and said the negotiations stalled because trade talks are traditionally difficult to launch, citing initial efforts to launch the Uruguay Round in 1982, four years prior to its eventual beginning. The round was completed in 1994 when members agreed to establish the WTO. "The fundamental reason a new round was not launched here had, in my judgment, very little to do with my philosophy of trade," Clinton said. By Corbett B. Daly Copyright � 1999 by The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc., Washington D.C. **COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. 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