AP Online / BY MARTIN CRUTSINGER
WASHINGTON -- The Clinton administration, under pressure from Congress, released the text of its landmark trade agreement with China on Tuesday and pledged intensive enforcement to ensure that China opens its markets.
Administration officials insisted the 250 pages of detailed text that it sent to each member of Congress and released to news organizations confirm its claims that U.S. exporters stand to reap billions of dollars from lowered trade barriers promised by China.
"We are confident that once people have reviewed the agreement, they will see for themselves that this is a tremendous deal for American workers, farmers and businesses," U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky said in a statement.
Opponents quickly seized on what they view as serious shortcomings of the agreement: the lack of protections for workers, the environment or human rights.
"It is scandalous to read through 250 pages of a Clinton administration trade agreement and find not a signal word on the rights of workers, on environmental protection or on human rights," said Scott Nova, director of Citizens Trade Campaign. It is among groups leading the fight to get Congress to reject the law implementing the U.S.-Chinese agreement.
In negotiations last November, China offered to open its vast market in return for U.S. support for China's membership in the World Trade Organization. Under WTO rules, however, American exporters cannot receive benefits of the reduced trade barriers until Congress scraps its annual reviews of China's trade privileges in the U.S. market and bestows low tariff rates permanently.
Opponents charged that the wording of the text released by the administration raised questions about how ironclad China's market-opening commitments are. Over the past two decades, various U.S. administrations have negotiated deals to open China's markets to American companies only to complain later that China did not live up to its commitments.
"What we have is the same mushy language we have had in the past," Nova said.
Administration officials disputed that contention and pledged a vigorous enforcement effort.
"To those who are concerned that these commitments by China will not be honored, let me assure you that we are already preparing for the most intensive enforcement effort ever mounted for a single trade agreement," U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers said Tuesday in a speech to the American Electronics Association.
The decision to release the text represented a turnabout for the Clinton administration, which for months had insisted that it was bound by WTO rules prohibiting release of the actual agreement while China was still in negotiations with other countries whose support it must receive for WTO membership.
Members of Congress finally persuaded the administration to abandon that position. The administration expects China's permanent trade status to win Senate approval with little difficulty. But the legislation faces a difficult struggle in the House, where labor unions are putting pressure on Democratic lawmakers to oppose.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., has said the administration will have to come up with 100 Democratic votes before he will call up the measure for a vote. A leading Democratic opponent, Rep. David Bonior, D-Mich., said he believes two-thirds of the 211 House Democrats will oppose, which would give the president only 70 votes.
Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier, R-Calif., said release of the actual text should make the job of supporters easier. He agreed with Hastert that a full vote is impossible until Republicans are assured of sufficient Democratic support.
Rep. Bill Archer, R-Texas, whose House Ways and Means Committee has jurisdiction over the legislation, plans to discuss the timetable for House consideration of the measure in a speech Thursday.
Archer's aides said he will use the address to suggest that President Clinton deliver a nationally televised address to the country emphasizing the importance of the China vote.
Barshefsky's office said a decision has not been made whether to post the text on the Internet. It covers specific tariff cuts and trade barrier reductions for more than 5,000 products and services.:
