-Caveat Lector- <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/"> </A> -Cui Bono?- -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Trade: China MFN: Neither Necessary nor Warranted! Date: Sat, 11 Mar 2000 23:26:31 -0600 (CST) From: "Michael Dolan" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Organization: ? To: undisclosed-recipients:; The Big Lie of the Big Bizness campaign to secure permanent Most Favored Nation trade status for China (echoed by the First Free Trader, below) is that U.S. corporations will lose out to foreign business interests if and when China joins the WTO. As a member of the WTO, the U.S. will enjoy the same market access privileges as any other member, whether we grant MFN annually, monthly or weekly. Moreover, we have an existing bi-lateral agreement with China which guarantees reciprocal MFN status accross the same broad spectrum of goods and services as covered by the secret WTO deal. http://www.citizen.org/pctrade/china/chinahome.html The Big Secret is this: Big Bizness isn't concerned about Chinese market access for U.S. made products, their shrill and pricey lobbying campaign to the contrary notwithstanding. What they want is a politically stable business environment, unmolested by congressional do-gooders, so they can transfer production and jobs to China. Exploitation of Chinese workers and the opportunity to externalize costs of production on the Chinese environment and society is the ultimate transnational corporate goal. Meanwhile, that brutal, corrupt and arrogant regime in Beijing continues to trample over basic human and worker rights, common garden variety civil liberties and the legitimate aspirations of Chinese democracy activists and the Tibetan people. In short, PMFN for China is neither necessary nor warranted. ********************************************************************** We appeal to the veterans of the MAI debates and of the Fast Track fight and of the WTO Battle in Seattle to take ownership of this next big trade policy challenge. The allies and affiliates of the Citizens Trade Campaign have mobilized at the grassroots level and now we need your help. As our friend Jim Hightower says, 'they've got the fatcats, but we've got the alley cats'. For starters, you U.S. based activists (we ask the international subscribers to this modest list to indulge us here) should be contacting your congressional delegations (toll free 877.722.7494) and giving the lie to the corporate (and Administration) propaganda. You should contact the CTC and the Global Trade Watch organizers to find out which congress-members are 'swing' targets and get hooked into the state-wide or regional Fair Trade coalition nearest you. If you live in the Northeast, you should contact Steffan Spencer at [EMAIL PROTECTED] In the South or Midwest, Alesha Daughtrey at [EMAIL PROTECTED] In the West, Margrete Strand at [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or me, Mike Dolan. We can win this fight, with your help. Meanwhile, behold some clips: 1) Washington Post (3/9) Clinton and the Big Lie 2) Press Release we downloaded from the AFL-CIO web site www.aflcio.org 3) L.A. Times (3/8) We're in the dark as usual 4) San Jose Mercury News (3/8) The Falun Gong Show, cont. ____________________________ President Begins China Trade Push By Charles Babington and Matthew Vita Washington Post Staff Writers Thursday, March 9, 2000; Page A01 President Clinton formally called on Congress yesterday to grant permanent trading privileges to China, igniting a debate that will dominate the House for weeks and determine whether Clinton achieves the highest international priority of his final year in office. While some analysts foresee a tough battle for the president and his allies, House Majority Leader Richard K. Armey (R-Tex.) told reporters he expects the House to approve the measure by late June. He added, however, "It's going to be tough to get the votes." Unless Congress approves the trade legislation, Clinton and others say, the United States will not share in the increased access to Chinese markets that will occur when China joins the World Trade Organization, as expected later this year. That would be a huge blunder for U.S. companies and consumers, Clinton has said repeatedly, and the snub would play into the hands of Chinese hard-liners and anti-democracy forces. Yesterday, in a major speech in Washington, the president made his most comprehensive case yet for U.S. support of China's WTO participation. He left little doubt that he's staking part of his legacy on the debate's outcome. A U.S. rejection of the trade measure, Clinton said, "would be a mistake of truly historic proportions." Supporting China's entry into the WTO, he said, "represents the most significant opportunity that we have had to create positive change in China since the 1970s, when President Nixon first went there, and later in the decade when President Carter normalized relations." Opponents say the trade measure would wrongly reward a nation that oppresses its citizens, spoils its environment and threatens its neighbors. China fanned those flames last month by suggesting it might use military force if Taiwan indefinitely delays reunification talks with the mainland. Critics say Clinton's proposal would reduce U.S. influence over China by ending the tradition of annual congressional reviews of trade relations with the Asian giant, which often became forums for critiques of China's human rights record. Some White House officials note that, despite the hot rhetoric, Congress has approved "normal trade relations" with China year after year, and they contend that's the best indicator that lawmakers will now make that status permanent. But pro-trade Democrats fear that if Congress delays action, the issue could fall victim to political pressures in an election year in which control of the House is at stake. House Minority Whip David E. Bonior (D-Mich.), a leading opponent, insisted yesterday that 30 Democrats who previously voted for annual renewal of trade relations with Beijing will now vote against permanent normal trade relations. "I think this is going to be an extremely close vote," Bonior said. But Rep. Robert T. Matsui (D-Calif.), a leading proponent of normal trade ties with China, said: "He's speculating. There's no good vote count." The China trade issue divides America's political and business communities along several fault lines, creating an unusual and potentially powerful coalition of opponents. It includes labor union activists, who say China abuses its workers and its environment, and conservatives who regard China as a dangerous and unpredictable communist power. To overcome their opposition, Clinton has dug deeply into the presidency's vast resources, assigning several Cabinet secretaries and numerous aides to lobby the issue almost full time. He has created a "China Room" in the White House to coordinate the effort, and he increasingly has focused his own energies and comments on the endeavor. "The effort being undertaken on this is as substantial as anything I've seen in seven years in the White House," said Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger, the administration's national security adviser. Clinton's success or failure will write an important chapter in his legacy. He has tried to make the Democratic Party more supportive of robust trade agreements, a tough sell to labor unions that feel the United States exports manufacturing jobs when low-wage nations such as China gain greater access to U.S. markets. His record thus far is mixed. Clinton won a hard-fought battle for ratification of the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1993, but Congress rejected his later request for "fast-track approval" of proposed trade agreements. Last fall, his trip to a WTO summit meeting in Seattle became a public relations fiasco when opponents of the global trade group ran riot in the streets. Clinton has raised the stakes on the China trade issue by making it such a big priority. If Congress rebuffs him, "it will be a big loss, and it will be very visible," said American University presidential scholar James Thurber. "I think it's going to be very difficult for him to win passage of this in Congress because it splits both parties," with many conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats working against it. On Capitol Hill, pro-trade Republicans and Democrats were much more optimistic, despite several weeks in which treaty critics were much more forceful in trying to dominate the debate. But they warned they need a major lobbying effort by Clinton, especially in the House, where approval is much less certain than in the Senate. "The president's role will be to frame the debate," Matsui said. He said the president's speech yesterday--delivered at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies of Johns Hopkins University--provided "a focus that there hasn't been before on this issue." Officials expect the Senate Finance Committee to approve the measure and send it to the Senate floor by the end of the month. Senate passage would set the stage for a House showdown in May or June. As a condition for WTO membership, Clinton noted in his speech, China has agreed to lower its trade tariffs on agricultural products, manufactured goods and other commodities, and it would drop its current barriers to distribution of many foreign-made goods. "Congress will not be voting on whether China will join the WTO," the president said. "Congress can only decide whether the United States will share in the economic benefits of China joining the WTO." Congressional rejection, he said, "will cost America jobs, as our competitors in Europe, Asia and elsewhere capture Chinese markets that we otherwise would have served." Clinton said rejection of his proposal also "would be a gift to the hard-liners in China's government, who don't want their country to be part of the world--the same people willing to settle differences with Taiwan by force . . . the same people whose first instinct, in the face of opposition, is to throw people in prison." The administration has lined up extensive support from the U.S. business community. The Business Roundtable, a major corporate group, launched a $1.5 million television advertising campaign in 22 states this week. It's part of a planned $6 million lobbying effort by the group this year that it says will be larger than the drive to win congressional approval of NAFTA. The AFL-CIO is mounting a big campaign to deny China the permanent trade privileges. 2000 The Washington Post Company _________________________________ New Peter Hart Research Polling Shows Voters Strongly Disapprove of Giving China Permanent Free Trade Status Washington, D.C. Today the AFL-CIO launched a new grassroots mobilization campaign calling upon members of Congress not to scrap their annual reviews of China's human rights and trade record. The first wave of a new national television ad campaign began airing in the districts of 11 members of the House of Representatives and three Senators. The new ads urge working families to call their elected Representative and urge him or her to vote against permanent normal trade relations and to "keep China on probation" until the Made in China label "stands for fairness." "Chinawhich has not yet ratified the two United Nations covenants on human rights it agreed to sign before President Clinton's trip to China in 1998has broken every trade agreement it has signed with the United States over the past 10 years. Chinese government officials already are saying they have no intention of complying with the agreement they signed with the U.S. only three months ago," said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. "And China is one of the worst offenders of human rights in the world. It is a country that does not tolerate political dissent or free speech. China uses executions and torture to maintain order, persecutes religious minorities, and violates workers' rights," he continued. The U.S. currently runs a trade deficit of nearly $70 billion with China, where wages are extremely low. According to a report released by the National Labor Committee, factories in China which produce goods for export to the U.S. pay their workers between thirteen cents and 35 cents an hour. The AFL-CIO's campaign is the first front of a major new multi-year campaign to make the global economy respect people, not just profits. The campaign consists of four key components: educating union members and the general public about the global economy, fighting for workers' rights in the global economy, building global solidarity among working families and holding multinational corporations accountable for their role in speeding up the race to the bottom. "Public opinion is strongly opposed to ending the system of annual reviews for China," said Sweeney, referring to a new national survey of registered voters conducted by Peter Hart Research Associates which shows that although support for free trade policies has increased since 1997, Americans feel strongly that U.S. trade agreements should prevent the loss of jobs in the U.S., protect the environment, and stop unfair competition from countries who violate workers' rights. According to the Hart Research srvey, the majority of voters (65 percent) oppose giving China permanent trade access without allowing Congress to annually review its record. Sixty-three percent of Democrats and 75 percent of Republicans oppose permanent normal trade relations for China. The public is particularly critical of China's trade policies: 61 percent say China has unfair policies, up from 48 percent in 1994, and higher than Japan (51 percent) and Mexico (35 percent). Seventy-two percent say that China ranks below average in terms of labor conditions, and 81 percent say it ranks below average in respecting human rights. By a four-to-one ratio, voters say they would be less likely to support their member of Congress if he or she votes in favor of permanent free trade with China and those margins hold for both Democratic and Republican voters. Only 12 percent say they would be more likely to support a member of Congress who votes for China permanent normal trade relations. Seven in 10 voters reject the argument frequently made by supporters of permanent free trade with China that "the best way to improve human rights in China is not to restrict trade, but to engage China and include it in important international bodies, such as the World Trade Organization." They also reject the arguments that the agreement will "expand our exports and create good jobs in America" and that "American business will be hurt if other countries have access to the Chinese market and we don't." "Over the coming weeks, we are going to work hard to mobilize working families to make their voices heard in the halls of Congress. We'll be calling and visiting members of Congress in their home districts and on Capitol Hill, and we'll hold teach-ins, town hall meetings and rallies," said AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Linda Chavez-Thompson. ______________________________________________________ Copyright 2000 Times Mirror Company Los Angeles Times March 8, 2000, Wednesday, Home Edition SECTION: Part A; Page 1; Foreign Desk LENGTH: 1188 words HEADLINE: AS CHINA TRADE FIGHT NEARS, PUBLIC IS IN DARK ON DEAL; CONGRESS: PACT WOULD NORMALIZE SINO-U.S. ECONOMIC TIES. CRITICS SAY SECRECY UNDERMINES LAWMAKERS' UPCOMING DEBATE. BYLINE: JONATHAN PETERSON, TIMES STAFF WRITER DATELINE: WASHINGTON BODY: As members of Congress prepare for what could be their major showdown of the year, the battle over granting China permanent normal trade ties is unfolding against an unusual backdrop: A recent deal that will transform Beijing's economic relationship with the United States remains secret from the general public. Lawmakers, senior staff and others with special security clearance are being allowed to review the document, which was negotiated last year and paves the way for China to become a member of the World Trade Organization. But they are legally restricted from copying or discussing the 2-inch-thick set of rules and details that are stamped "confidential" and bear the initials of U.S. and Chinese negotiators. As a result, critics complain, one of the biggest foreign policy decisions the nation has faced in years will be made with an extraordinary lack of public knowledge and informed discussion. "I'm like the average American--completely in the dark," complained Scott Nova, director of the Citizens Trade Campaign, a coalition of trade policy critics in Washington. "Just as we don't vote on tax cuts that the public doesn't get to see before Congress votes, just as we don't vote on environmental protections that the public doesn't get to see, we ought not to be voting on trade deals before the public gets to know what Congress is voting on." Members of Congress have addressed other high-stakes issues that are not fully spelled out for the public, and legislators themselves are sometimes denied details related to national security and intelligence matters. Yet the shroud of secrecy--which has been seized on by China critics to stir suspicions about the agreement--is drawing increasing attention on Capitol Hill because it is a noteworthy departure from the prelude to other sweeping trade agreements. Charges of hypocrisy are making the White House uncomfortable, because President Clinton has publicly emphasized the importance of greater openness in the WTO--which sets standards for global commerce and mediates trade disputes between member countries--even as the administration keeps the China agreement off limits. The confidential treatment of the China deal has added an aura of mystery to an accord that White House officials say they have largely summarized for the public, and which they insist is strongly in America's interest because China made all the concessions. Broadly speaking, the agreement would open up China's markets to an array of U.S. services and would ease tariffs on many U.S. export products. Clinton is expected to deliver the legislation to Capitol Hill today. The administration says its passage is necessary so the United States can enjoy the sweeping benefits that China says it will offer the rest of the world after its expected entry into the WTO. In contrast to the U.S.-China deal, the North American Free Trade Agreement and the global Uruguay Round accord that created the WTO were both available to the public for about a year before their consideration in Congress. Close observers of trade policy are frustrated by the restrictions on reviewing the accord with China, which they say poses potential concerns related to labor standards, the environment and U.S. jobs--subjects they argue should be approached with a maximum degree of public scrutiny. "We're still formulating our position on it, but we're very concerned about the whole secrecy issue," said Daniel A. Seligman, a trade analyst for the Sierra Club in Washington. In classifying the U.S.-China deal as "confidential," U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky was following the routine practice of the WTO in not releasing tentative deals while related negotiations are still underway. China has not yet finished talks with the European Union, Brazil and a handful of other nations on its bid to join the WTO. Beyond that, further details of China's treatment in the global trading club are yet to be ironed out at the WTO, including how China's compliance with its trade pledges will be enforced. U.S. officials have argued that publicizing the terms of the U.S.-China deal right now would interfere with the other China negotiations, perhaps discouraging China from offering added concessions to other countries from which the U.S. would benefit after Beijing joined the WTO. Nonetheless, Clinton administration officials seemed increasingly uneasy Tuesday about the secrecy. A recent slowdown in negotiations between China and Europe effectively doomed White House hopes that the whole global web of China talks could be completed before Congress considered the issue. Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) laid out the dilemma to Barshefsky at a Senate hearing Tuesday. "You know, we represent our people back home," he said. "It's a little difficult to vote for an agreement that, although we can see, they can't see. . . . Why can't we be more transparent?" Barshefsky answered: "With the delay in the European talks, we're going to have to rethink this position. . . . I think we are moving toward the view that public availability will be important." Administration officials recently decided to speed up congressional consideration of the matter for fear that election-year politics would jeopardize the prospects of changing China's trade status after about June. In particular, Democrats are under fierce pressure from organized labor to resist changing China's status, which now requires an annual review before Beijing is granted the treatment accorded other U.S. trading partners. A senior U.S. trade official said "it is really a struggle" for the administration to balance the desire to make all the fine print of the U.S.-China deal public against its reluctance to affect other negotiations in progress. "We want this thing out there," he said. "We want the world to see it. Yet we have legitimate economic interests and world interests that we have to balance against that." The administration's supporters point out that it has released a 17-page summary of the agreement, has briefed officials and has provided detailed testimony in Congress about the agreement. "We'd all prefer more disclosure," said Rep. Robert T. Matsui (D-Sacramento). But Matsui said he is satisfied with the administration's efforts to keep members of Congress informed. Other supporters sounded more cautious. "I have not envisioned the House of Representatives voting on permanent normal trade relations with China before the text of the U.S.-China bilateral trade agreement is made available to the American people," said Rep. David Dreier (R-San Dimas). Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) made clear that the White House faces a major challenge in selling Congress on permanent normal trade ties with China. "If you are serious , you've got to do a lot more than you are," Lott lectured Barshefsky at the Senate hearing. "Enough is not being done, and I'm not going to stick my neck out. If I don't feel it, I don't think it's happening." _______________________________________________________ Published Wednesday, March 8, 2000, in the San Jose Mercury News Beijing holds Bay Area members of Falun Gong BY JESSIE MANGALIMAN Mercury News Staff Writer Eight Bay Area residents who practice Falun Gong remained under arrest in Beijing on Tuesday, days after they were rounded up in China's latest crackdown on the controversial spiritual movement. Another unidentified member of the Bay Area group who lives in the San Jose area apparently avoided arrest because he left before Chinese authorities raided the apartment where the group had been staying, local Falun Gong practitioners said. At least two of the residents arrested are American citizens, and U.S. officials are inquiring with Beijing authorities to determine whether two more of the detained are also Americans, according to officials of the U.S. State Department. While the State Department did not identify the Americans arrested, friends and family members identified them as Qian Zhizhen and her son, David Sun, 12, of Fremont; Loretta Sukmei Lam of San Leandro; and Jein Shyue of San Jose. ``They think it's the right thing to go to China and talk to officials about the crackdown and tell them that it's wrong,'' said Alan Zeng, a San Jose software engineer, whose brother, Johnson Zeng, was among four others arrested. Johnson Zeng, his wife, Yili Wang, Fan Wenquing and Guo Wei, all San Francisco software engineers, were also detained. They are Bay Area residents who hold work visas. Zeng said he spoke with his brother about a week ago and knew that some members of the group were in China to ``try to appeal to People's Assembly'' about its ban on Falun Gong. Most of them knew of the risk for arrest, Zeng said. The group went to Beijing a week ago to try to engage the government of China in a dialogue about the practice of Falun Gong, a spiritual movement that involves yoga-like exercises. Hundreds of Bay Area residents subscribe to the practice, which is said to have a following of millions of people around the world. Their arrival in Beijing was timed to coincide with the national legislature's annual session. The Chinese government considers Falun Gong a cult and has banned its practice. While members claim they have no leader, Beijing officials say they are led by Li Hongzhi, a former martial arts instructor whom they have described as ``an evil figure,'' capable of disrupting social stability. On the night of March 4, between 9 and 10 p.m., police raided the apartment rented by the Bay Area group in the Yang Qiao Bei Li residential district of Beijing. Fifteen Falun Gong practitioners were arrested, eight from the Bay Area. But one of the group members, who was not in the apartment at the time of the raid, said he returned to find that the apartment had been ransacked, said Sunnyvale's Alan Huang, a local Falun Gong practitioner and a friend of the group arrested in Beijing. The man is now trying to leave Beijing, and Huang refused to identify him. ``That's how we found out. He took a lot of risk to call out,'' said Huang, who was arrested with three others in a similar crackdown last year. Local members of Falun Gong said they had heard unconfirmed reports that Qian Zhizhen and her son were going to be released. State Department officials could not confirm the reports. ``I think it's terrible. They're nice people, and they weren't really doing anything,'' said Lisa Wendl, a San Jose mortgage broker who has been practicing Falun Gong for a year and a half. ``The Chinese government says you can't practice this, and it's supposed to disappear? It doesn't work that way. People have freedom to practice this belief.'' Rep. Tom Lantos, D-San Mateo, who helped win freedom for Huang and two other Californians in December, called the arrests ``the most recent preposterous outrage by this ruthless, totalitarian regime.'' Lantos told the Associated Press that he has called the Secretary of State's Office, the U.S. ambassador in China and the Chinese Embassy to try to gain the release of the captives. Relatives and friends of those arrested said they are worried how the detainees are being treated in China. ``We've heard a lot of reports about the persecution of practitioners in China, a lot of human rights violations. Yes, I'm very concerned. I hope they're released as soon as possible,'' said Allen Zeng. Huang remembers being detained for 13 days in Guangdong Province last year for practicing Falun Gong. He said he was kept in a detention center, in a cell with a dozen other people. The toilet was a hole in the ground, and there was a sink. Two people shared a bed cover, Huang said. ``We're working very hard to get them out of there. We don't know their whereabouts or their conditions,'' Huang said. Zeng sent a one-page letter Tuesday to Lantos and other members of Congress to appeal for help in seeking the release of his brother and other practitioners of Falun Gong. ``We appeal to you to urge the Chinese government to release these innocent practitioners as soon as possible,'' Zeng wrote. A spokesman for the People's Republic of China consulate in San Francisco did not return a phone message. Mike Dolan Deputy Director, Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch Field Director, Citizens' Trade Campaign 202-454-5122 (tel), 202-547-7392 (fax) 215 Pennsylvania Ave. SE Washington, DC 20003 [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.tradewatch.org <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are not allowed. 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