    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000, Book I)]
    [May 12, 2000]
    [Pages 918-920]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Opening Remarks at a Roundtable Discussion in Akron on Permanent Normal
    Trade Relations With China
    May 12, 2000

        Thank you. First of all, I'd like to thank Congressman
    Sawyer for inviting me here today, and I thank
    all of you for joining us. I know we have people here who have a lot of
    different views on this China issue, but I think that's important. I
    think this is a big part of what

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    makes our democracy work is that we sit and try to talk through these
    things.
        I've got a few notes here that are specific to Ohio, so I'd like to
    just go over them. Obviously, I've spent a lot of time on this trade
    agreement with China, which was negotiated in order to let them in the
    World Trade Organization. And in order for us to benefit from its
    provisions, we have to grant them normal trading status on a permanent
    basis. For the last 20 years, ever since the formal opening of China in
    1979, we've been doing it on an annual basis. So this--I want to make
    sure we understand, the decision before Congress is whether to go from
    an annual review of their trade relationships with us, to give them
    permanent normal trading status--that is, the same status that virtually
    every other country in the world enjoys.
        Now, it's important to recognize that whatever you think the long-
    term consequences are, the short-term consequences are all running in
    our favor, because today we have a very large trade deficit with China,
    and they have very large tariffs and other barriers to our doing
    business with them. What this does is, they take down a lot of their
    barriers to trade and investment with America in return for membership
    in the World Trade Organization, which puts them in the global trading
    system and requires them to follow certain rules and gives us some way
    to appeal if they don't follow those rules. But what they get is
    membership in the club. What they give us are membership dues. That's
    the way you have to look at this. And the access, on purely economic
    terms, is, I think, quite impressive.
        Today, Ohio is the leading State in machinery exports. Two-thirds of
    the industrial workers in this State have jobs that benefit in whole or
    part from exports. In the last 5 years--or from '93 to '98--Akron's
    exports to China have more than doubled. Over the same period, Ohio's
    exports to China also more than doubled. And this involves almost every
    sector of the Ohio economy. It's over $350 million now.
        So if this passes--Secretary Glickman can
    talk about it later as well--there will be huge new markets for
    agriculture, new markets for automobiles, new markets for high-tech
    equipment, new markets for telecommunications equipment. We will be able
    for the first time, for example, to sell cars there or sell auto parts
    there without either having to put a manufacturing plant in China or
    transfer manufacturing technology. That's never been possible before.
    And the tariffs will drop on average in some of these areas, say, from
    25 percent to 10 percent over a period of just a few years. So it's a
    big--it's in every way an economic winner.
        In addition to that, you should know that last April, a year ago, we
    had most of this, but not all this agreement. And I consulted with,
    among others, the AFL-CIO and other people who were concerned about
    whether the economics work out fairly, and they asked me to go back and
    get some new provisions about our trade relations, so that if China
    dumped a lot of products into our market in a certain area, which
    threatened a lot of jobs, we could take immediate and quick action. I
    did that; that's why we didn't get this agreement last April.
        I went back--China has now agreed to give us the right, for more
    than a decade, to move against them on a bilateral basis if there's
    trade injury in America. And the standard of proof we have to make is
    lower than the standard of proof we have to make under our laws for
    every other country in the world. And they agreed to this. They agreed
    to allow us to bring action against them if there's severe dislocation
    of our markets under a standard of proof lower than we have for any
    other country in the world, which is what I was asked to do, and we got
    that, against surges of imports and dumping and things like that.
        So I think it is a good deal economically. But I have to tell you, I
    think it's more important for our national security. Why? Because if we
    let China in the WTO, they will be inside the world trading system. They
    will have a strong interest in working with other people and cooperating
    with other people. They will have a strong disincentive not to have
    trouble with Taiwan, even though there's a lot of tension between the
    two of them, as all of you have heard. And I think we'll be able to
    continue to work with them and relate to them and make progress on a
    whole range of other fronts.
        I think it's quite interesting that most, not all, but most of the
    human rights activists in China, most of the democracy activists in
    China are for this agreement. There was a big article on the cover of
    one of our--I think the Washington Post, yesterday on the front page,
    where they'd gone and actually interviewed dissidents in China who were
    severely alienated from the Government, and everybody they interviewed

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    said, ``Please do this. If you don't do this, America won't have any
    influence over the Chinese. You'll never be able to help us. We'll never
    be able to move forward. We'll be isolated; we'll be more repressed.''
        Martin Lee, the long-time democracy advocate
    in Hong Kong--who can't even go to China, has never met the Premier of
    China, for example, Zhu Rongji--in America last
    week said, ``You have to do this. If you don't vote for this, you have
    no influence. You can't help me. Nothing will happen. And the chances of
    something bad happening in China will be much greater.'' The President-
    elect of Taiwan, who has previously advocated
    independence from China, wants us to vote for this.
        Now, there are people in China who don't want this to pass. The most
    militant elements in the military, the most traditional elements, the
    people who control the state-owned industries, they don't want this to
    pass because they know if they open up China, their control will be
    undermined. And in one of the great ironies of this whole trade debate,
    I've never--it's an unusual thing to see that some of the most
    progressive people in our country are taking a position that is
    supported by only the most regressive people in their country. Because
    they know that isolation helps them to maintain control and the status
    quo.
        I honestly believe this is by far the most important national
    security vote we will take this year. I think if we pass it, it will
    strengthen and stabilize our position in Asia and reduce the likelihood
    of conflict, even war, there for a decade. I think if we don't pass it,
    it will increase the chances that something bad will happen.
        That's not a threat, and goodness knows if I didn't prevail, I would
    pray that I was wrong. I can only tell you that I've been doing this a
    long time. I believe I know what I'm talking about, and I think that
    it's very, very important.
        And so, for whatever it's worth, that's why we're here. And
    Tom was good enough to get this panel together so
    we could just have a conversation. That's what this is about, and I want
    to hear from you. And I'm sure after this is over, all our friends in
    the media will want to hear what you said to me. [Laughter] And you feel
    free to tell them. But I think we ought to start now and have that
    conversation.
        Thank you.

    Note: The President spoke at 11 a.m. in a classroom at the Ohio Army/
    National Guard Facility. In his remarks, he referred to Hong Kong
    Democratic Party Chair Martin Lee; and President-elect Chen Shui-bian of
    Taiwan.