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  1. #1
    Senior Member jp_48504's Avatar
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    Democrats block China bill easing way for CAFTA

    http://today.reuters.com

    Democrats block China bill easing way for CAFTA
    Tue Jul 26, 2005 3:18 PM ET

    By Doug Palmer

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives blocked a Republican bill on Tuesday aimed at boosting support for a free trade agreement with Central America by addressing trade concerns with China.

    Republicans hoped a victory on the bill would build momentum for a vote this week on the U.S.-Central American Free Trade Agreement, or CAFTA, by persuading trade-wary Republicans from industrial states like Pennsylvania and Michigan to support the trade pact. But Democrats attacked the bill as a merely cosmetic attempt to tackle serious trade problems with China.

    Most House Democrats oppose CAFTA, which would tear down trade barriers between the United States, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic. House Speaker Dennis Hastert told reporters on Tuesday that Republicans were still working to round up the 218 votes they need to win approval of the trade pact.

    House leaders attempted to pass the Trade Rights Enforcement Act on the "suspension" calendar usually reserved for noncontroversial measures. Suspension bills require the support of two-thirds of those voting to win approval, but the measure failed, 240-186, with most Democrats voting against it.

    A key provision of the Republican-backed bill would allow U.S. companies to seek duties against "subsidized" imports from China and other non-market economies. That is a priority for many U.S. manufacturers who say they are being driven out of business by unfair Chinese trade practices.

    BUSH COOL TO BILL

    "Voting for this bill today will send a strong message to Beijing that the U.S. Congress will not sit idly by while China's mercantilist trade policy injures U.S. employers and costs us jobs," said Rep. Phil English, a Pennsylvania Republican who agreed to back CAFTA after House leaders embraced his trade rights legislation.

    The Bush administration has been cool to the bill because of the difficulty of determining subsidies in non-market economies like China. U.S. firms can already seek duties on "dumped" Chinese goods sold below fair-market value.

    House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas, a California Republican, said Republicans could bring the bill to the House floor again on Wednesday on the regular calendar, where it will only need a majority to win approval.

    "The Democrats chose the political route and forced a lot of people who would have preferred to vote for it" to oppose it instead, Thomas told reporters.

    Democrats charged the bill would actually weaken U.S. countervailing duty laws and complained they have not been allowed to offer any alternatives. Other provisions which call for increased monitoring of trade and currency problems with China are of little real substance, the Democrats said.

    "This bill before us, in a word, is a smoke screen," Rep. Sandy Levin, a Michigan Democrat, said during floor debate on the legislation. "At its very best, it's feeble. At its worst, it disguises what the real problem is."
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  2. #2
    Senior Member jp_48504's Avatar
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    Democrats Block Bill to Monitor China Trade

    http://www.forbes.com/business/healthca ... 58150.html

    Democrats Block Bill to Monitor China Trade
    07.26.2005, 01:57 PM

    Legislation to strengthen monitoring of Chinese trade practices was defeated in the House Tuesday, a victim of a larger political battle over passage of a free trade agreement with Central America.

    House Democrats, while agreeing on the need for safeguards against China's unfair trading, accused the Republican majority of trying to rush through the bill in order to secure wavering votes for the Central American Free Trade Agreement, which is expected to reach the House floor this week.

    "This bill has nothing to do with China. It has everything to do with getting votes for DR-CAFTA," Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., top Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee, said in reference to the trade deal with the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.


    The vote was 240-186 for the bill, short of the two-thirds majority needed under a special procedure, normally for non-controversial bills, that limits debate time and does not allow amendments.

    Rep. Phil English. R-Pa., author of the legislation, questioned the Democratic opposition, saying his bill would "send a strong signal to Beijing that Congress will not sit idly by while China's mercantilist trade policy injures U.S. employers and costs us jobs."

    English has acknowledged that the decision by the Republican leadership to move quickly on his China bill made it easier for him and others with concerns about the government's enforcement of trade policies to support the Central American agreement.

    English's bill, which could still be reintroduced under regular procedures, would make it easier to apply U.S. countervailing duty law to subsidized exports from nonmarket economies such as China and establish a monitoring system of China's compliance with trade obligations on intellectual property rights and market access for U.S. goods.

    It would also require the Treasury Department to submit a report to Congress every six month analyzing the application of the new exchange rate mechanism just adopted by China.

    Democrats were also upset that they were not allowed to offer their alternative bill for dealing with Chinese trade practices. They argued that their version would be more effective in addressing the issues that contributed to China's $162 billion trade surplus with the United States last year.



    The bill is H.R. 3283
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