CAFTA and China
July 16, 2005
From "Both Parties Propose to Punish China Trade" in the July 15, 2005 edition of the Washington Post:
On the surface, the China and CAFTA issues aren't closely related. The growing U.S. trade deficit with China and the recent bid by a Chinese firm for a U.S. oil company has fed congressional anxiety about Beijing's increasing economic muscle and outrage over practices such as keeping its currency fixed against the U.S. dollar. CAFTA, which would significantly lower trade barriers between the United States and six Latin American countries, has drawn fire for failing to protect worker rights adequately and for threatening U.S. special interests such as the sugar industry.
But House Republican leaders have been forced to confront the prospect that CAFTA might fail to secure enough votes in the House, which would be a devastating setback to President Bush's trade agenda. Lawmakers may think they have enough political "cover" to vote for CAFTA if they have also voted to punish Chinese trade practices -- or so many political analysts believe.
Thomas essentially confirmed that was his strategy. Asked if he expected a vote on the China bill before CAFTA comes to the floor in late July, he said "it is probably a good idea to do it before . . . so we let people express themselves" on the China trade issue first. He said he expected no difficulty getting House Republican leaders to accept his schedule. "I think I can persuade them," Thomas said, smiling.
Democrats, who are almost unanimously opposed to CAFTA, portrayed Thomas's statement as a sign of desperation. "The Republican leadership cannot get the votes to pass CAFTA on its own merits," said Rep. Charles B. Rangel (N.Y.), ranking Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee.
Rangel and other Democrats introduced their own anti-China bill yesterday. Linking such legislation to CAFTA "diminishes the importance of both trade matters and underscores the weakness of the Bush administration's current policy toward trade with China and the major flaws in CAFTA," said Rep. Sander M. Levin (D-Mich.).
The bill endorsed by Thomas and English, which they said was still being prepared yesterday, would authorize the Commerce Department to impose duties on government-subsidized imports from "non-market economies" such as China. Currently, imports from such countries are subject only to anti-dumping penalties, though under rules that make it easier to conclude that dumping has taken place.