By Patricia Wilson
EVERETT, Wash. (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush set aside "posturing and partisanship" on Wednesday, urging colleagues and Democrats in Congress to pass President Clinton's landmark trade pact with China.
The Texas governor defined sharp differences with Clinton and Vice President Al Gore, his Democratic rival in the Nov. 7 White House election, on many issues regarding China and trade, but temporarily joined them in calling on a bitterly divided House of Representatives to vote for permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) for China next week.
Declaring he was acting "on principle" on "one of the most serious decisions our government will make this year," Bush said: "I am here to urge all members of Congress, both Republicans and Democrats, to join together in making China a normal trading partner of the United States."
PNTR would guarantee Chinese goods the same low-tariff access to U.S. markets as products from nearly every other nation. China would, in turn, open a wide range of markets, from agriculture to telecommunications, to U.S. businesses.
The U.S.-China trade bill also ensures U.S. support for China's entry into the 136-member World Trade Organization.
Bush favors both China and Taiwan's membership in the WTO. His remarks were scheduled for delivery at the Boeing plant in Everett, a stone's throw from Seattle, site of violent demonstrations against the global trade organization during an international conference last year.
High Stakes
"The stakes are high on all sides," he said. "For businesses, workers and farmers it will mean lower trade barriers and enormous opportunities. For the people of China, it holds out the hope of more open contact with the world of freedom."
But Bush drew distinctions between the Clinton-Gore policy toward China and his own vision, saying that they placed their confidence in Beijing as "a strategic partner" of the United States while he knew China was a competitor.
"They have been inconsistent on Taiwan, I will be clear. They failed to obtain fast-track negotiating authority. I will fight for it. They mishandled the global trade negotiations right here in Seattle. I will make expanding trade a consistent priority of my administration," he said.
But Bush concluded that despite "sharp disagreements," it was in the country's best interests to work together toward common goals of "freedom, security and economics" in China.
"This is not a Republican or Democratic concern. It is an American concern ... accomplished by confident diplomacy, strong alliances and the military might to back them up," said Bush. "It is not accomplished by hindering free trade or seeking to isolate China."
Clinton has made an all-out push for passage of the legislation which faces a key vote in the House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday.
Gore also has supported the bill but somewhat less enthusiastically at times since he could face a backlash from labor and its Democratic allies who have demanded that Beijing improve its human rights record and labor standards before joining the Geneva-based WTO.
"Moral" Case For Trade
Bush did not directly address those issues in his prepared remarks, but said the case for trade with China was not simply monetary, "but moral."
"Economic freedom creates habits of liberty and habits of liberty create expectations of democracy," he said, citing Chile and Taiwan as good examples. "Trade freely with China and time is on our side."
Bush stressed he would deal firmly with China, which he did not regard as an enemy. Rather, he said, it was a nation that must be faced "without ill will and without illusions."
Pointing out that PNTR would benefit major exporters like Boeing, which expects China to be its largest foreign market for commercial aircraft over the next 20 years, as well as small and medium-sized U.S. businesses, he said: "For all these gains, we will not have to change a single sentence of our existing trade rules."
Bush pledged to enforce the rules against harmful trade policies and to safeguard U.S. markets from unfair practices like dumping.
"After last year's confusion in Seattle, a leader in the protectionist camp confidently declared that by excluding China from the WTO they hoped 'to deliver the last blow' against our system of free trade," Bush said. "Neither the United States nor the world can afford such a setback.":
