Ways and Means Panel Rejects Revoking China’s Trade Status

WASHINGTON — In the first meaningful test of congressional sentiment on the emotion-laden issue of trade with China, the powerful House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday voted by a wide margin to maintain normal economic relations with Beijing.

The 34-5 vote was in effect a bipartisan recommendation that the full House reject a resolution to revoke China’s most-favored-nation trade status. The House Republican leadership is expected today to schedule the floor vote; it is likely to come next week.

A rejection of MFN, advocated by human rights monitors and others, would expose what has become one of America’s most important trading partners to excessive tariffs and other punitive measures. It would relegate China’s trade status to that of countries such as Libya, Iran, Iraq and Cuba.

Thousands of American jobs, many of them in California, could hang on the outcome. President Clinton has argued strongly for renewal of China’s MFN status.

While the margin of Wednesday’s vote in part reflected the bipartisan, trade-friendly nature of the committee, it could also indicate that despite heated debate, House sentiment may not have altered as radically as many observers believed since Congress last year granted a one-year extension of China’s MFN status.

For the first time, opposition from conservative religious groups--which have joined ranks with human rights organizations in the wake of reports of persecution of Christian missionaries in China--has added to the strength of those lobbying to end Beijing’s normal trade status. And anti-China feelings stirred by allegations that Beijing attempted to influence the 1996 U.S. presidential election with illegal campaign contributions have also helped opponents.

Still, a senior State Department official monitoring the issue said: “If there’s erosion in the House, we didn’t see it here today.”

But Rep. Joseph R. Pitts (R-Pa.) predicted that “the floor vote will be much closer. That’s where Gary Bauer [a prominent voice of the Christian right and president of the Family Research Council] and the Christian Coalition have been doing their work.”

However, even if the resolution to revoke China’s normal trade privileges manages to pass the House and the Senate, it appears unlikely that MFN opponents will be able to muster the votes needed to override a presidential veto.

As the debate over China’s trade status continued Wednesday, there was growing disenchantment on both sides of the issue about using the MFN designation as a vehicle for criticizing the country’s internal conditions. For proponents of continued trade, many of whom argue that such action is the only way to ensure human rights improvements, the congressional debates are messy, politically damaging and economically counterproductive. Opponents have come to see the annual joust as a chance to make noise but little progress in the areas they care about.

“We don’t need to send a message [to China]; what we need is a policy,” Rep. Sander M. Levin (D-Mich) said.

Times staff writer Marc Lacey contributed to this report.