By Adam Entous
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Clinton administration said on Monday it would rush legislation to Congress clearing the way for a contentious vote on a landmark trade agreement with China, after key lawmakers warned that time was running out for a vote this year.
U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky said the White House would submit legislation "shortly" asking Congress to provide China with permanent trading privileges in the United States, rather than wait for the European Union and other nations to wrap up their negotiations with Beijing over its bid to join the World Trade Organization (WTO).
"I don't think Congress should wait," Barshefsky told reporters.
Free-trade Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. Senate warned President Clinton's top trade negotiator last week that the market-opening agreement was in peril.
They urged Barshefsky to submit the trade legislation so lawmakers could begin their deliberations. Any delay could bog the agreement down in heated election politics, they said. White House officials are pressing for a vote in May or sooner, if possible.
The trade pact, hammered out last year, calls for China to open a wide range of markets, from agriculture to telecommunications.
In exchange, the White House says the Republican-controlled Congress must grant China permanent normal trade relations -- a status Beijing now is granted annually.
Permanent NTR would guarantee Chinese goods the same low-tariff access to U.S. markets as products from nearly every other nation.
The U.S. agreement is a crucial step for China to join the Geneva-based WTO, which sets global trading rules. But Beijing must still wrap up negotiations with the European Union and other WTO members.
Previously, the White House and congressional leaders agreed that a vote on China's trade status would wait until at least Brussels and Beijing completed their negotiations over China's accession to the WTO.
But those negotiations have stalled, prompting the Clinton administration to change its plans.
"The (U.S.) agreement, as you know, is virtually unassailable," Barshefsky said after briefing U.S. governors on the terms of the pact. "The only thing the EU can do is add to it...And Congress certainly has, I think, the full means to vote on the basis of our agreement."
But prospects for congressional approval of the trade deal have dimmed in recent days as criticism mounts over China's threat to invade Taiwan.
Senate leaders said reports that Vice President Al Gore, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, may add labor and environmental provisions to the trade agreement may also undermine support.
At the same time, labor unions, traditionally allied with Clinton's Democratic party, have singled out the trade agreement for attack, demanding that Beijing improve human rights and labor standards before joining the WTO, and have put congressional Democrats on notice that they will pay at the polls in November if they support it.
The White House hopes Congress will vote on the pact by June. Timing is critical since the congressional session will be cut short by the election, and some lawmakers may balk at the trade agreement as the campaign heats up.
In recent weeks, Barshefsky has stepped up pressure on her European counterpart, EU Trade Commission Pascal Lamy, to quickly concluded negotiations with China.
"I do believe Europe does want to get back to the bargaining table," Barshefsky said on Monday. "I can't tell you when that is, but my impression was that (Lamy) didn't want to let too much time go by.":
