ABCNews / By Carter M. Yang
WASHINGTON, May 18 - A pitched battle in Congress over a landmark deal to open up trade with China is making strange bedfellows of some usually bitter political enemies.
One side is fighting to permanently lower tariffs on Chinese goods in return for a pledge by Beijing that it will open its vast markets to the United States. Supporters of permanent normal trading relations, or PNTR, say the deal is simply good business and warn that if the measure is rejected, other countries will take advantage of the lucrative Chinese markets while American companies are hung out to dry.
The other side is gunning to kill the pact, arguing that it will cost Americans jobs as smaller firms, unable to compete with cheap Chinese labor, are forced to close up shop. They also point out China's notorious human rights abuses.
Clinton Makes Full Court Press
The unlikely makeup of the two coalitions arrayed for and against this historic agreement is startling, pitting Democratic factions against one another even as the White House allies itself with some of its fiercest critics. Leading the charge in favor of PNTR is President Clinton.
"We are doing everything we can to round up each possible vote," Clinton said this morning. "Momentum is building but we've still got a challenging fight."
Indeed, the president is pulling out all the stops in his relentless effort to build public support for the agreement and to win over congressional support in advance of an expected vote in the House next week.
Standing side-by-side with the president at his news conference today was Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, who is widely credited with helping to promote the nation's booming economy.
"The outcome of the debate on permanent normal trade relations with China will have profound implications to . the long-term growth potential of the American economy," Greenspan said. "I believe extending PNTR to China . is in the interests of the United States."
"Chairman Greenspan has established a pretty good record for knowing what's in America's economic interests," the president added.
Earlier this month, the president assembled a daunting group of former officials - including former Presidents Ford and Carter and three ex-secretaries of state - at the White House to rally support for PNTR. And Clinton himself plans to make his case to the nation on Sunday with a live address from the Oval Office. It is rare for the president to use such appearances to appeal to the public on a legislative matter.
Joining the White House-led effort are many of the president's most vocal Capitol Hill critics, including Texas Rep. Tom DeLay, the Republican whip, who has relentlessly hammered the administration on everything from the Monica Lewinsky scandal to the Elian Gonzalez custody battle.
"We want to create a free market for liberty and Democratic ideals in China," DeLay said Wednesday. "PNTR will put the Chinese people on a path to freedom. We could do that by expanding trade and exposing China to American values and ideals."
"China's our fourth largest trading partner and probably the most important growth factor for our agricultural products," added House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill. "Passing permanent trade relations with China will level the playing field and make it easier for our farmers to sell their products abroad."
With the leadership are the majority of House Republicans, who are largely sympathetic to the business interests that are lobbying for PNTR's approval.
Labor Lobbies Against Deal
Storming the ramparts are labor unions, which have tangled with the Clinton White House before but are usually close allies of the administration. The AFL-CIO has led an intense lobbying campaign to reject PNTR.
"Until there is freedom of speech and freedom of association in China," said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, "until there is freedom of religion and freedom to join unions in China, there can be no permanent free trade agreement with China."
Standing with the labor unions are their congressional friends, namely the bulk of the Democratic caucus, including the House's top Democrats, Minority Leader Richard Gephardt of Missouri and Minority Whip David Bonior of Michigan.
"[The] proponents of this proposal are swimming up stream against public opinion," Gephardt said today. "Public opinion clearly understand that it is not wise to give the `Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval' to a regime which has time and time again proven itself deficient in terms of human rights, labor concerns and environmental concerns."
"We value trade, but we will never trade in our values." Bonior said Wednesday. "Approving permanent normal trade relations means giving away the only leverage Congress has to challenge China's human rights abuses . [It] means giving up the only leverage Congress has to help the countless men and women suffering as slave laborers in China today."
Under current law, Congress gets to decide each year whether China is worthy of most-favored nation trading status. PNTR would take away that power.
Gephardt and Bonior's brothers in arms in this battle include several Republicans, including New Jersey Rep. Chris Smith, a leading critic of China's human rights practices.
"There is nothing `normal' about trade with China," said Smith. "Normal countries do not routinely beat, torture and murder its citizens if they disagree with the government."
The pro-PNTR forces were bolstered Wednesday by two lopsided votes by key congressional committees. The powerful House Ways and Means Committee voted 34-4 in favor of the legislation, clearing the way for a vote by the full 435-member House next week. And the Senate Finance Committee approved the measure on a 19-1 vote. If the agreement is approved by the House, its passage by the 100-member Senate is all but guaranteed.
On Tuesday, New York Rep. Charles Rangel, the Ways and Means Committee's ranking Democrat, announced his support for the measure, helping to sway other Democrats who were still on the fence. And a bipartisan agreement reached late Tuesday on a human rights monitoring plan is also expected to help win over wavering House members. Under the deal, a commission with the authority to recommend economic sanctions against China would oversee the nation's human rights practices. The agreement also would guard against China flooding U.S. markets with cheap goods.
White House Seekers Weigh In
The odd alliances also extend to the presidential campaign trail, where Vice President Al Gore and Texas Gov. George W. Bush have taken time away from assailing one another's policy proposals to agree on PNTR.
"I want the machinists to understand that opening up China to trade would be good for their jobs and their job security," said Gore, who is leading the White House's arm-twisting efforts on Capitol Hill.
Gore is drawing stern warnings from labor unions, a constituency he will need to win the White House, as he quietly works to win over a handful of key congressional Democrats.
While Bush, his Republican rival, warns against the dangers of treating China as a "strategic partner," he supports PNTR.
"For business, workers and farmers across our country, it will mean much lower trade barriers and enormous opportunities for U.S. exports," Bush told workers today at a Boeing plant in Everett, Wash. "For the people of China, it holds out the hope of more open contact with the world." Standing against the bill, with pitchfork in hand, is would-be populist leader Pat Buchanan. The conservative two-time Republican contender and likely Reform Party presidential nominee has long opposed international trade agreements such as this.
"Both parties in Washington are going the same way," Buchanan said Wednesday on ABC's Good Morning America. "Republicans are hauling water for Bill Clinton and Beijing and we want to have at least one party in America that puts human rights and national security above corporate profits."
In many ways, the battle over PNTR is a replay of the Clinton administration's first-term fight for the North American Free Trade Agreement. Many of the same voices were heard for and against and the rhetoric from both sides was largely the same.
The president won his fight for NAFTA, but as judgment day for the China trade deal fast approaches, leaders in both parties and on both sides of the argument say the final outcome is still too close to call.
"This vote is going to be close," House Minority Leader Gephardt told reporters this morning. "It could go one way or the other by just a handful [of] votes."
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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