Australian trade minister: China confident on U.S. Congress vote

Monday, May 22, 2000 | 9:01 a.m.

Vaile and Chinese foreign trade minister Shi Guangsheng signed an agreement today negotiated a year ago on opening Chinese markets. The two then celebrated over lunch and discussed the tightly contested vote in Congress on China's permanent normal trading rights, or PNTR.

"They don't think the PNTR vote is in the bag," Vaile told reporters afterward. He said Shi realized the Clinton administration was working hard to win support ahead of Wednesday's vote.

China's signing of a market-opening accord with the European Union on Friday "applies a little bit more pressure" on Congress, Vaile said. "There is probably a quietly confident feeling that it is moving in the right direction, but we are going to have to wait until Wednesday to see."

The permanent trading rights are part of a deal Washington and Beijing reached in November that gave U.S. firms broad access to Chinese markets once China joins the World Trade Organization. Beijing has threatened that without the trading rights U.S. firms may not get the favorable treatment given other WTO members.

The market-access accords, like the one China and Australia signed today, are a precondition for Beijing's membership in the WTO. With the EU in hand, China still needs to complete agreements with five WTO members: Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico and Switzerland.

Vaile said he expects those agreements to be concluded soon. Then China still needs to finalize the rules for its membership with the WTO.

Vaile also said he expects Australian wine and dairy exporters to benefit from larger tariff cuts the EU won from Beijing. Any concessions granted to a WTO member as part of the bilateral negotiation process must be extended to all members once China joins the organization.

Under the China-Australia accord, Beijing has agreed to gradually enlarge quotas of imported wool. Once the agreement comes into effect, Vaile said Australia's trade deficit with China should shrink.