Agence France Presse
BEIJING, April 25 (AFP) - US Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman Tuesday praised China's market-opening efforts while warning of increased scepticism to free trade back home.
Glickman, leading a US delegation study trip to drum up support for a bill to grant permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) with Beijing, said failure to pass the bill would also hamper the development of religious freedom and labour rights in China.
"In the US there is more scepticism in free and open trade today, even in agriculture circles, than there might have been 15, 20, 25 years ago," he told reporters.
The US administration faces a struggle in convincing US politicians to support passing PNTR status with China in the lead-up to crucial votes by the House of Representatives on May 22, followed by a Senate vote in the week of June 5.
"My judgement is that it (PNTR) will pass but I think it will be a close vote," he said.
Glickman praised a US deal with China last November in which Beijing pledged sweeping open-market concessions in exchange for US support for its World Trade Organization (WTO) membership.
Beijing insists the passing of the PNTR legislation is a prerequisite for the concessions it has signed up to.
"China has agreed to lower their tariffs on most US agricultural products to levels below that which many industrialised nations of the world charge us," the trade secretary said.
His delegation of three Democrat representatives and one Republican representative as well as a lone senator has been downsized from original plans to send 10 legislators.
The group's arrival on Tuesday follows the cancellation of a similar delegation trip to China to convince legislators to vote for PNTR for China planned on April 13 which was called off because of members' insufficient interest.
Glickman said the scaling back of the original delegation plans arose from the reluctance of many of the US politicians to leave their families during the two-week Easter break in the US.
Glickman said however that the size of the delegation was not important, stressing the importance of US-China ties which hinged on the passing of the PNTR legislation.
"We in the US are deciding whether to use this opportunity to make our bilateral relationship as strong as it's ever been by granting China permanent normal trade relations," he said.
Delegation members said they planned to meet religious and human rights leaders in China.
"One cannot minimise the United States focus on human rights issues even as we try to expand and open trade and commerical relations in this country," the trade secretary said.
"To weaken commerical ties would slow the pace of change in China on important issues like religious freedom and labour rights which we believe in very strongly in our country.":
