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China trade pact in peril in US House

WASHINGTON: Support in the US House of Representatives for President Bill Clinton's landmark trade agreement with China is eroding because of an intense lobbying campaign by organised labour, one of Clinton's Democratic allies warned on Monday.

House Ways and Means Committee member Robert Matsui said a growing number of Democrats who supported trade legislation in the past are bowing to pressure from the AFL-CIO and other labour unions, jeopardising this year's prospects for passage of the market-opening pact with China.

Republican leaders have demanded that Clinton and his allies round up 90 to 100 Democratic votes in the House. But Matsui said there was little chance of meeting that target and warned that a vote may have to be put off until 2001 or 2002.

"It's going to pass," Matsui of California said. But he added: "It may not be this year."

The trade agreement, a crucial piece of Beijing's application to join the World Trade Organisation (WTO), calls on China to open a wide range of markets, from agriculture to telecommunications.

In exchange for China opening of its markets, Clinton says Congress must grant Beijing permanent normal trade relations (NTR) a status that would guarantee Chinese goods the same low-tariff access to US markets as products from nearly every other nation.

US Senate support is virtually assured, but union leaders and their allies said they were within striking distance of killing permanent NTR in a bitterly divided House.

In the last month alone, the 750,000-member United Steelworkers of America union has flooded Congress with 186,000 letters, warning that the pact would undermine workers' rights in China and could lead to 600,000 or more US job losses.

In April, the AFL-CIO labour federation said it would organise a massive rally on Capitol Hill, expected to draw at least 10,000 activists. To increase pressure, the union will also hold protests at lawmakers' district offices and air television ads in key states during the upcoming congressional recess, April 17 to May 1.

Matsui said the AFL-CIO campaign was having a major impact, chipping away at Democratic support for permanent NTR. "Labor is better at lobbying back home than business is," he said.

By Matsui's count, 70 to 80 House Democrats will vote in favour of permanent NTR, short of the number demanded by the Republican leadership.

Nevertheless, he urged House Speaker Dennis Hastert to schedule a vote by June.

"Why the leadership in the House cannot set a date so that we can move forward is just beyond comprehension. It jeopardises passage," Matsui said. "Every day that goes by puts us one or two votes behind."-Reuters