China Trade Not A Done Deal Yet

Passage Into Law Still Probable

(CBS)  A day after it won solid approval in the House, the China Trade bill, which has been expected to sail through the Senate easily, ran into unexpected problems in that chamber.

Opponents from both the political right and left served notice they would use potentially time-consuming tactics to hold the bill up to scrutiny and amendment.

"I want to make sure there are votes to deal with serious human rights questions, the rights of workers to organize, trade compliance," said Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn. "It's something that I can do and should do and I'll be out there. I don't intend to be shut out."

Wellstone was expected to team up with Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., in pushing a raft of labor-supported amendments. Organized labor has waged a fierce campaign against the bill, which it sees as a threat to U.S. workers' jobs.

From the other end of the political spectrum, Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., pledged not to let the Senate "rubber stamp" the House-passed measure and advised China-trade supporters to hold off on "popping the champagne corks."

Helms promised "votes -- perhaps uncomfortable votes -- on a range of issues."

The Vote

How did your representative vote on the China trade bill?

Click here to find out.

Sens. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., and Robert Torricelli, D-N.J., announced Thursday that they, too, would seek to modify the China trade bill. They want to set up a mechanism to monitor Chinese weapons proliferation.

Still others were expected to try to attach a provision to increase U.S. military ties with Taiwan.

Because of the exhaustive battle that led up to Wednesday's 237-197 vote in the House, neither side paid much attention to the Senate -- until now.

A Great Debate

The House voted after an afternoon of emotional argument and sometimes-eloquent oratory.

Click here to read excerpts from the debate on the House floor.

The bill is ultimately expected to win overwhelming support in the Senate, where the Finance Committee has approved it 18-1.

But hopes by Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., for a "clean" bill -- one without amendments like the one that passed the Finance Committee -- were complicated by House-added amendments, including one to establish a commission to monitor human rights in China.

China is hailing as "wise" the vote by the U.S. House of Representatives granting China permanent normal trade relations. But the human rights provision in the bill was deemed "unacceptable."

"Some articles contained in the bill which attempt to interfere in China's internal affairs under the pretext of human rights are unacceptable," the official news agency Xinhua quoted a Trade Ministry spokesman as saying.

Uncorking China

Why are American businesses so keen to get a trade pact with China?

Click here to read CBS News Correspondent Anthony Mason’s report.

It was the first Chinese reaction to passage of the bitterly contested bill on Wednesday, which the House passed by a margin of 237 to 197 in what Rep. Bill Archer, R-Texas dubbed "the most important vote that we cast in our congressional careers."

CBS News Chief Washington Correspondent Bob Schieffer reports the trade bill was one of the most heavily lobbied issues ever.

Big business, which argued the bill was key to opening Chinese markets and keeping America competitive, battled against organized labor and other groups who thought the bill put human rights and American jobs at risk.

Most House Democrats opposed the bill, but President Clinton was for it.

The administration and the U.S. business community also engaged in some heavy horse-trading to shore up support.

Rep. David Drier, R.-Calif., told opponents of the bill, "If you care about the Chinese people, you cannot ignore the reality that free market reforms have lifted hundred of millions of Chinese people out of poverty."

Opponents claimed the trade agreement did not address concerns about human rights, religious freedoms, democracy or the environment in China, and argued that U.S. workers would suffer because Chinese workers earn lower wages and may attract American jobs.

Congress' only Chinese-American also voted no.

"I refuse to turn my back on the sacrifice of my parents and countless other Americans who have stood in the cause of freedom," said Rep. David Wu, D-Ore.