STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- ListBot Sponsor -------------------------- Start Your Own FREE Email List at http://www.listbot.com/links/joinlb ---------------------------------------------------------------------- "The House Ways and Means Committee, on a voice vote, endorsed Bush's decision to renew normal trade relations with China despite recent tensions over the downing of a U.S. spy plane and concern about Beijing's human rights record. " <A HREF="aol://4344:30.L100cmWl.344962.679448922"> 07/12: US House panel backs China normal trade relations</A> US House panel backs China normal trade relations WASHINGTON, July 12 (Reuters) - A key committee in the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday voted to approve President George W. Bush's decision to extend normal trade relations to China for an additional year, but rejected a bid to give Cuba the same treatment. The House Ways and Means Committee, on a voice vote, endorsed Bush's decision to renew normal trade relations with China despite recent tensions over the downing of a U.S. spy plane and concern about Beijing's human rights record. The committee action sets the stage for the full House to vote on the measure before the August congressional recess. Last year, both the House and the Senate approved a bill to end the annual review process of China's trade status and establish "permanent normal trade relations." But that hinged on China's entry into the World Trade Organization under terms as least as good as those it negotiated with the United States in a 1999 bilateral pact. When China failed to enter the WTO by June, Bush faced the issue of whether to extend normal trade relations for an additional year. His decision to do that set the stage for one last fight in Congress on the issue. China is expected to complete its nearly 15-year bid to join the WTO later this year or early next year. Key Democrats, while supporting Bush's action, made clear they expected China to improve its human rights record and reduce its huge trade deficit with the United States. "We need not only to engage (with) China, but to pressure them," said Rep. Sander Levin, a Michigan Democrat. Along those lines, a U.S. watchdog commission on China established by last year's PNTR legislation should begin operation this month, he said. Rep. Charles Rangel of New York, top Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee, used the vote on China's trade status to push for an end to the four-decade-old U.S. embargo on Cuba. "I don't see why it makes any sense for the United States to trade with communist China, with communist Vietnam, with communist North Korea and still not trade with Cuba," he said. By a vote of 16-22, committee Republicans defeated an effort by Rangel to tie the panel's endorsement of normal trade relations with China to a similar measure for Cuba. 19:48 07-12-01 Copyright 2001 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL. ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
