The New York Times

Thursday, February 17, 2000

THE PRESIDENT'S NEWS CONFERENCE: The Domestic Focus

Excerpts from Clinton's Comments at Wide-Ranging News Conference

Following is excerpt on China/Trading Status, from President Clinton's news conference yesterday, as recorded by the New York Times

Q: Mr. President, would you rule out a one-year automatic renewal of China's normal trading status unless Congress disagrees? And do you think that would be a formula Democrats would find easier to accept?

CLINTON: That would be a -- I would not support that because in order to get China into the WTO and in order for us to benefit from returns, the agreement from the that Ambassador Barschefsky and Gene Sperling and others made with China, they have to get permanent normal trading status.

Since you asked the question, let me tell you what I feel so strongly about it. This is not a political issue for me. This is a huge national security issue, for three reasons. Number one, our biggest trade deficit is with China, because China has access to our markets and our access to theirs is highly restricted. This trade agreement offers no increased access to the American markets by China, but gives us dramatically increased access to their markets. Moreover, it means we can get access to their markets without having to transfer technology or agree to do manufacturing in their country.

And we retain specific rights, even once China's in the WTO, on a bilateral basis to take action if there's a big surge of imports in some sector in the economy that would throw a lot of people out of work in a short time.

So economically, from agriculture to high-tech products to automobiles to all things in between, I think this agreement is a clear (inaudible) deal for us, if the price of admission to the WTO is modernizing and opening the economy.

Number two, having China in a ruled-based system, increases the likelihood, not only that China will follow the rules of the road in terms of the international economy, but that China will cooperate more in other forums -- the United Nations and many other areas -- to try to help reduce rather than increase the proliferation of dangerous weapons, of technology for example. That's what I believe, with all my heart.

Number three, I believe this agreement will change China from within more than all the other economic opening of the last 20 years, combined, fairly rapidly, because of the dramatic increase in access to communications and contact with the outside world that this agreement portends.

Now, as I said in the State of the Union Address, and I tried to say again when I went over to Switzerland to talk, the truth is, I don't know what choices China will make. I don't know what path China will take. And neither does anyone else.

I don't want to oversell this to the American people in that sense. But what I believe I do know, based on all my experience, not only as president, but just with human nature, is that they are far more likely to be constructive members of the international community if they get into the WTO and they make these changes than if they don't.

And I think it's quite interesting, you know, one of the things that has really moved me on this -- since one of the big issues which we had differences with China is in the repression of political and religious expression -- is how many of the religious groups that actually have missions operating in China agree with this. People that have actually worked there, lived there, and been subject to some of the repression there, agree that what we're doing is the right thing to do.

I think the substantial majority of the opinion in Taiwan agrees that this is the right thing to do.

So I'm going to push this as hard as I can, I want to get the earliest possible vote I can, and I can't tell you how important I think it is.

I think that if we -- if we didn't do this, we would be regretting it for 20 years. And I think 10 years from now we'll look back and no matter what decisions China makes, we'll say the only thing we could control is what we did, and what we did was the right, the honorable and the smart thing to do for America over the long run.