WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Clinton administration officials said on Friday they were studying proposals by House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt that could increase Democratic support for a market-opening trade pact with China.
Gephardt's package, outlined with few details on Thursday, would include enforcement provisions to ensure that China complies with its trade obligations, as well as create a forum for U.S. lawmakers to review Beijing's human rights record, and a "code of conduct" for U.S. firms that do business in China.
Under any compromise legislation, the Missouri Democrat said the U.S. should have the option of imposing trade sanctions against China if it violated the agreement, as long as the penalties were consistent with WTO rules.
Democratic aides said another possibility was legislation that could halt lending from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the U.S. Export-Import Bank, should China flout international norms. Under this option, Congress would have the authority to direct U.S. representatives at the lending agencies to vote against future loan payments.
Administration officials held talks on Thursday with Gephardt's staff. "We're studying and looking at the all the proposals," a White House official said.
The negotiations could hold the key to passage of the landmark trade agreement in the House of Representatives, where it faces stiff opposition from Democrats demanding that China improve human rights and labor standards before joining the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Gephardt has been a thorn in President Clinton's side in previous trade fights, leading Democratic insurgencies against the president's so-called fast-track trade negotiating authority and other free-trade initiatives.
But Gephardt privately has assured business leaders in recent meetings that he will not rally Democrats against the China trade agreement, which calls on Beijing to open a wide range of markets, from agriculture to telecommunications.
In exchange for market opening by China, Clinton says the Republican-led Congress must grant the country permanent normal trade relations, a status Beijing now receives only after an annual congressional review.
Permanent normal trade relations (NTR) legislation, introduced by Clinton last week, would guarantee Chinese goods the same low-tariff access to U.S. markets as products from nearly every other nation.
The legislation is expected to pass the Senate, with bipartisan support, according to a Reuters poll.
It is also expected to clear the powerful House Ways and Means Committee. But it faces an uphill battle in the full House, where Democrats are closely allied with organized labor.:
