Beijing Calls For End To Review

China on Tuesday welcomed a decisive vote in the US Congress that assured Beijing of Most Favoured Nation (MFN) trade status for another year but urged Washington to halt its annual review process.

We believe it is a wise move for the US House of Representatives to veto the bill on revoking Chinas MFN status, foreign ministry spokes man Tang Guoqiang said.

The result of the vote shows once again that attempts of some people in the United States to revoke Chinas MFN status goes against trends of history and runs counter to the interest of both Chinese and American people, Tang said.

 

US lawmakers expressed concern about human rights abuses in China, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the fate of Hong Kong after the British colony returns to Chinese rule on July 1 and allegations that Beijing tried to influence US.elections through illegal campaign contributions.

A spokesman for Chinas Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation welcomed the vote as in the interests of China and the United States, state television reported.

Giving each other MFN treatment is a normal and mutually beneficial arrangement, it quoted the spokesman as saying.

Clinton thanked lawmakers for their support and said continuing MFN did not mean an endorsement of all of Chinas policies.

His remark effectively means China must continue to undergo the annual review process, a system that angers Beijing.

We hope the US government and Congress will in the interest of Sino-US relations reverse the outdated practice of the annual review of Chinas Most Favoured Nation status at an early date, Tang said.

The Foreign Trade Ministry also voiced its opposition.

We hope the US side could take measures as early as possible to change this kind of abnormal practice and permanently resolve Chinas MFN treatment to ensure stable and smooth development of economic and trade ties between the two countries, the spokesman said.

Clinton said Washington would not stop speaking out on Chinese policies with which it disagrees.

When we disagree with China, such as on human rights and religious freedom, we will continue to speak out candidly and clearly, he said in a statement following the vote.

Opponents of maintaining Chinas trade privileges said the vote, coming just one week before Hong Kong reverts to Chinese rule, was ill-timed.

Tuesdays vote was narrower than the 286 to 141 vote last year to support Chinas MFN renewal.

Lawmakers were swayed by arguments that revoking Chinas MFN status would do nothing to stop human rights abuses and could work against U.S. commercial and security interests in the region as well as hurt Hong Kong when it needed U.S. support.

Under U.S. law, the president must decide each year whether to grant China MFN, and Congress has the right to disapprove his decision.

Without MFN, duties on imports from China would soar to an average of 44 percent from a current level of about six percent. MFN status is enjoyed by almost every other country. Only a handful of countries are denied the trade privilege.

Efforts to overrule the president on China MFN has failed every year since the 1989 crack-down on pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square.