World

U.S. Opens Borders To China Trade

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

December 27, 2001 / 6:29 PM EST / CBS

Taking the final step to normalize U.S.-Chinese trade ties, President Bush Thursday signed a proclamation formally granting China permanent normal trading relations, the White House said.

Bush's action, a formality that follows more than a decade negotiations, will allow China as of Jan. 1, 2002 to ship its goods to the United States at the same low-tariff levels that Washington extends to nearly all other nations.

The White House said Bush also ended the application of the Jackson-Vanik provisions, which require communist nations to show they do not restrict emigration before they can have normal trading relations with the United States, to China.

"This is the final step in normalizing U.S.-China trade relations and in welcoming China into a global, rules-based trading system," the White House said in a statement released in Crawford, Texas, where Bush is on vacation at his ranch.

Since 1980, China has enjoyed temporary normal trade relations with the United States under annual presidential waivers of the law. But each waiver has triggered debates in Congress over China's record on human rights and weapons proliferation abuses.

The last one occurred in July, when the House voted 259-169 to approve Bush's waiver this year, the last that will be necessary.

The annual congressional battle pitted American business and its Republican allies against big labor and its Democratic supporters. Former President Clinton, at odds with many in his own party, started the process of moving China toward permanent trade status before he left office.

Last year, the U.S. Congress approved granting China "permanent normal trade — relations" putting it on a par with most other U.S. trading partners. But the deal hinged on Beijing's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO).

The White House said Congress had approved the step subject to the president's certification that the final terms for China's entry to the Geneva-based WTO were at least equal to those agreed to by China and the United States in 1999.

The White House said Bush made that certification on Nov. 9 and that China had formally joined the WTO on Dec. 11.

China's tariffs on U.S.-made goods are to fall from an overall average of 25 percent to 9 percent by 2005. Duties on America's primary farm products are to drop from 31 percent to 14 percent.

China currently enjoys an $80 billion trade surplus with the United States.

Bush has long supported trade with Beijing, even during the standoff over a U.S. spy plane that collided with a Chinese jet fighter and made an emergency landing on Chinese territory early this year.

In asking Congress for a temporary extension in June, he argued normalized relations would benefit the American economy and be critical to promoting an "economically open, politically stable and secure China."

Bush argued that U.S.-China trade benefits both American farmers, who last year exported to China and Hong Kong goods wortmore than $3 billion, and American business, which last year increased overall exports to China by 24 percent.