[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 132 (Monday, September 28, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11039-S11040]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       ACCESS TO CHINESE MARKETS

  Mr. GORTON. Mr. President, it looks like the administration has just 
experienced a tardy but welcome revelation, Mr. President. After 6 
years of coddling its rulers and selling out U.S. exporters, some in 
the administration are now beginning to realize that ``engagement'' has 
not moved China toward free trade but to greater protectionism.
  The $50 billion a year and growing bilateral United States trade 
deficit, the largest with any trading partner in the world but Japan, 
wasn't enough. The continued and egregious market access barriers to 
U.S. agricultural products weren't enough. The defiant stance against 
WTO negotiators wasn't enough. And the flagrant violation of the 
intellectual property rights of the American software and entertainment 
industries wasn't enough.
  But finally, China has pushed at least one member of the 
administration too far. The straw that broke the camel's

[[Page S11040]]

back was China's decision to ban joint ventures in the 
telecommunications industry. In Beijing last Tuesday, David Aaron, 
Undersecretary for International Trade at the Department of Commerce, 
became the first American official in nearly a decade to speak openly 
about China's protectionist trade policy and to threaten retaliation.
  Aaron is quoted in last Wednesday's Wall Street Journal as saying of 
the long list of trade barriers erected against American imports in 
China, ``The list keeps getting longer, and nothing gets struck off 
it.'' He continues, ``China is taking the trade relationship for 
granted. They want to export to us but not buy our products.''
  Yes; that is precisely what I have been arguing for 3 years. But an 
administration wedded to a policy of ``engagement'' with China no 
matter how unproductive refused to believe it until now. I cannot begin 
to express the sense of vindication I had when reading an article in 
last Wednesday's Washington Post that hinted at a new administration 
trade policy with China. Instead of continuing to hope that China's 
desire to join the community of free trading nations in the WTO would 
outweigh its protectionist tendencies, the administration is finally 
``threatening retribution in a much more concrete arena--the United 
States market . . . ''
  All well and good, but a day late and a dollar short. While President 
Clinton dismissed those of us in the antiengagement camp as ignorant, 
antifree traders, while the administration allowed the Government of 
the People's Republic of China to walk all over the United States for 6 
years, and while the United States trade deficit ballooned out of 
control, my home State of Washington suffered the consequences.
  Since 1972, China has refused to allow Pacific Northwest wheat into 
its market. This nontariff barrier erected against our wheat is based 
on a bogus phytosanitary concern with the spread of a wheat disease 
called TCK smut. For more than 20 years, the United States has 
presented Chinese officials with irrefutable scientific evidence which 
proves conclusively that there is absolutely no risk of introducing TCK 
smut into China.
  China's ban on Pacific Northwest wheat is in violation of 
international standards requiring that import barriers imposed in the 
name of food safety be based on sound science. But it is protectionism, 
not sound science, that serves as the basis for China's ban on 
Washington State wheat.
  For the past 3 years, I and several of my colleagues from the Pacific 
Northwest, have written to the President and Vice President to ask for 
assistance in tearing down this deplorable trade barrier. Our 
entreaties have been totally ignored, Mr. President, and the wheat 
farmers in my home State of Washington have suffered at the hands of 
the administration's weakness.

  Instead, the administration turned a blind eye to the wheat ban and 
hundreds of other Chinese protectionist policies, arguing all along 
that continuing to grant most-favored-nation trading status to China 
was the best and only way of improving our trade relationship with 
China.
  In addition, our apples are barred from Chinese markets. Our 
insurance firms can't do business in China. Our telecommunications 
equipment is barred.
  The Chinese are not stupid. In fact, one might argue that they are 
brilliant strategists, having convinced the United States to sit on its 
hands while China pillaged the United States market. That the 
President, the leader of the strongest nation in the world, rolled over 
and played dead in the face of Chinese threats is an embarrassment to 
the United States. He betrays the free people of Taiwan--who do buy our 
goods and services. But he will sell China what it will gladly 
purchase--our defense secrets. He allows our intellectual property to 
be stolen with impunity.
  The President knows that China is the world's largest emerging 
market. With a billion potential consumers for United States goods and 
an insatiable need for infrastructure improvements and technology, the 
Chinese market is among the most appealing in the world. In the fact of 
this prize, the administration simply caved in to the demands of 
China's dictators.
  What the administration has ignored until this week, is that the 
United States is China's most important market as well. In fact, the 
United States absorbs 30 percent of China's exports. And today, with 
the financial crisis having drastically decreased demand throughout 
Asia, the American market is even more important to China.
  In its rush to expand its economy and catch up with the rest of the 
world, China, since the late 1980's, has embarked on a full scale 
effort greatly to increase its overseas exports and thus to foster an 
economic boom within its own borders. Without the United States market, 
China's economic growth would come to a screeching halt.
  That is why, Mr. President, I have argued for 3 years that we should 
use the United States market as leverage in our trade disputes with 
China. But the administration refused to accept the logic of this 
strategy--until, that is, Secretary Aaron spoke so frankly in Beijing 
on Tuesday. I implore the administration, with its newfound wisdom, to 
take Aaron's advice and start tomorrow not just to threaten, but to 
impose retaliation against China unless it makes dramatic changes in 
its trade policy immediately.
  To make such threats without following through would be disastrous. 
The administration must act on its words and impose trade restrictions 
on China immediately unless it takes drastic steps to eliminate market 
access barriers to United States exports.
  The administration should start with the most egregious barrier of 
all, the ban on Pacific Northwest wheat. If, by next week, China has 
not succumbed to the irrefutable scientific evidence and allowed 
Pacific Northwest wheat into its market, the United States must take 
retaliatory action. If China won't let our wheat into its market, we 
shouldn't let China's textiles into our market. It is a simple 
solution, and it will work. China wants our markets. It won't risk 
losing them, even if the price is open markets to American goods and 
services.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Kansas.

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