USIS Washington File - 03 June 1997

(China should not get same trade treatment~ as others) (2380)

Washington The Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Jesse Helms (Republican of North Carolina), introduced a resolution June 3 to disapprove President Clinton's extension of China's most-favored-nation (MFN) trading status.

Speaking on the Senate floor June 3, Helms said: "There are many who are asserting the truth that the term MFN, which stands for Most Favored Nation, is a misnomer. MFN in fact means that a country gets trade treatment that's as good as anybody else's, not that it gets more favorable treatment than any other country.

"I accept that, and I oppose MFN on exactly those grounds. China gets the same trade treatment that virtually everybody else gets. When a country like China gets normal trade relations with the United States, it is getting better treatment than it deserves," Helms said.

"There's no valid reason for the United States, the world's leader in freedom, offering the same trading terms to China that the U.S. offers to other nations that do honor their citizens' human rights, and that do respect the rule of law," he said. "There can be no such thing as normal trade with the world's largest country, a communist system engaging in proliferation of conventional, nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.

"A country of which our State Department can say, there was not a single dissident active in 1996.

"A country which is violating commitments it made in an international agreement to preserve Hong Kong's institutions and way of life virtually intact.

"A country whose economy is built on prison labor and People's Liberation Army joint ventures with U.S. companies.

"A country which fires missiles across the Taiwan strait in an attempt to intimidate the people of Taiwan from conducting democratic elections.

"A country which makes money from organ transplants taken from prisoners.

"A country which has a policy of forced abortion.

"A country which has systematically destroyed Tibet's religion and culture.

"A country which violates international law in the South China Sea.

"A country which has a huge and growing trade deficit with the United States."