Thread: DIRTY TRICKS USED TO WIN VOTES FOR CAFTA

House Democrats block bill to monitor China's trade habits
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Wednesday, July 27, 2005


WASHINGTON

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

House Democrats, although agreeing on the need for safeguards against China's unfair trading, accused the Republican majority of trying to rush through the bill 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., the 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 noncontroversial bills, that limits debate time and does not allow amendments.

Rep. Phil English. R-Pa., the author of the legislation, questioned the Democratic opposition, saying that 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 such nonmarket economies as Chi-na 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 months 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 dealing with the issues that contributed to China's $162 billion trade surplus with the United States last year.

This story can be found at: http://www.journalnow.com

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