Granting Normal Trade Status to China

Granting Normal Trade Status to China

Whether to grant China with normal trade status as it enters the WTO (World Trade Organization) thus eliminating congressional review status under the Jackson-Vanik amendments to the 1974 trade statute, is an important issue when considering the validity and repercussions that granting normal trade status would do to US-Chinese relations.

It took three United States Presidents, two Chinese leaders and dozens of negotiators 13 years to clear a path for China to get the chance to join the World Trade Organization, which could occur if legislation sponsored by President Clinton is passed by a skeptic legislative branch, that has relied on the annual review of trade status as a means to police the Chinese government"( Kahn 1). "House Speaker Dennis Hasert, indicated that the GOP will stop playing political games by announcing that he will schedule a floor vote on legislation to grant China permanent normal trade status the week of May 22"(Newman 66).

Before exploring the issue at hand, it is important to discuss and define several different parts of the essay. First normal trade status is a term used to describe the trade status of the United States and its trading partners. Normal trade status means that the United States is on favorable terms with the country that it is trading with. The significance of granting normal trade status is that tariffs and trade agreements are easier to implement and are more favorable to a country with normal trade status opposed to a country that has not been granted normal trade status.

"The WTO, can be defined as the World Trade Organization, which is a 135 member trade organization based in Geneva. To gain membership into the organization one must fir...

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...derived from many of the same options that Representative Sander M. Levin has proposed. These include a U.S. commission on China's human rights violations, annual WTO review of Beijing's record on market-opening promises, and promises that nuclear weapon technology will not be sold to terrorists or rogue states such as Iran and North Korea. In short I feel that the positive benefits of allowing the Chinese government permanent normal trade relations, out way the negative impacts that not allowing the Chinese government permanent normal trade relations brings. The United States would not benefit from the Chinese entrance into the World Trade Organization, where as the rest of the members of the World Trade Organization including European nations such as England, France, and Germany and other countries such as Japan.