Why Congress Should Approve PNTR With China
Denver Young Democrats - June 13, 2000
By Jim Gibson
The trade agreement signed by the United States and China is a good deal that will create new opportunities for US businesses and workers. It was signed only after China made an enormous series of concessions opening its markets to US goods, services, and investment.
The expansion of markets abroad for US goods and services is critical to sustaining our current economic prosperity. As President Clinton often notes, we have four percent of the world's population and 22 percent of the world's wealth. To sustain this advantage, we have to find new ways to sell our goods and services to the other 96 percent of the world's population. China, with more than a billion people and a growing middle class hungry for our products, just can't be ignored.
All the United States has to do is grant China permanent Normal Trade Relations status - nothing more or less than we have granted China on an annual basis for 19 years. This is the same trading status we provide to all but a handful of other countries.
The new opportunities this deal makes possible are decidedly in our national interest. We make no concessions, other than bringing China into a rules-based trading system, which is also a positive development. It's a classic "win-win" proposition for the United States.
If Congress rejects this deal, other countries which are reaching trade-opening agreements with China, will benefit. This means the United States, not China, will be the big loser.
In today's global economy, if we don't take advantage of these opportunities, others will. Our competitors in Europe and Japan will seize the new opportunities of the burgeoning China market whether we do or not.
This point is crucial - trading with China is not a "blessing" of China's past and current behavior. Rather, it is a commitment by China to change its behavior toward more open principles that are prerequisites for foreign investment and economic growth in today's global economy.
No doubt, China has a far from perfect record on the environment, human rights and labor standards. This essentially economic deal will not improve any of them overnight but it can help.
Labor & Environmental Standards
Economic development is the surest way to improve worker and environmental standards in China.
Wealthier countries are better environmental countries. In addition, China, will have access to new, cleaner technology since it has agreed to remove many of its currently onerous restrictions on foreign investment.
Labor standards will be improved because the deal encourages China to participate fully in all international rules-based systems. Therefore, it is imperative that we do not turn our backs on China's attempts to join the global community in one area while asking for their commitment in others.
Human Rights
On human rights, the agreement will help advance the rule of law in China and more generally encourage China to play by the rules. This could be a crucial first step in the long process of moving China toward a more open, prosperous and, hopefully, democratic society.
Most important of all, it is critical to keep this in mind - we cannot "punish" China by refusing to let it do what we want it to do - open China's market wider to the goods and services provided by American businesses and workers, and to the values and institutions we share with our allies around the world.
Democratic Politics
But let me end on a strictly partisan note. History tells us that the political party that catches the wave of dynamic and profound transformation in its time is the one that will lead the country for decades to come. A couple of examples:
Roosevelt New Dealers correctly understood that the rise of large corporations and the national economy required a stronger federal government. Republicans continued to be overcome by laissez-faire economics and isolationism. The result - the Democratic Party dominated for 20 years.
When the economy changed in the late 1970s, Democrats sought to preserve the New Deal consensus while Republicans tried to destroy it. Neither side prevailed until President Clinton's Third Way - fiscal discipline, expanding trade around the world, and investing in our people - broke the stalemate and resulted in a strong economy and popular support.
The dynamic and profound transformation, facing us today, is globalization. The party that resists globalization and looks to the past for inspiration will fall behind.
If our party can keep this mantle, get its act together on trade and bring the benefits of globalization to the American people, Democrats can, once again, dominate politics for the foreseeable future.