The Senate's Passage Of Permanent Normal Trade Relations For China Marks An Historic Moment In U.S.-China Relations. Passage of PNTR by both the House and the Senate marks an historic moment in our pursuit of open markets and stronger U.S.-China relations, and continues to pave the way toward economic freedom for the Chinese people.
China's Entry To The WTO Will Slash Barriers To The Sale Of American Goods And Services In The World's Most Populous Country. China's entry into the WTO will dramatically cut import barriers currently imposed on American products and services. This agreement locks in and expands our access to a market of over one billion people. China's economy is already among the world's largest and over the past 20 years has expanded at a phenomenal annual rate of nearly 10 percent. During this period, U.S. exports to China have grown from negligible levels to over $14 billion each year. For agriculture alone, USDA estimates that China's WTO accession would result in $2 billion annually in additional U.S. agricultural exports by 2005.
China Made Unilateral Concessions; We Will Simply Maintain The Market Access Policies We Already Apply To China. China made significant, one-way market-opening concessions across virtually every economic sector, including increasing access to its markets for agriculture, services, technology, telecommunications, and manufactured goods. China also agreed to eliminate "unseen" barriers, such as exclusive rights to import and distribute goods.
Requiring China to eliminate barriers to U.S. companies that can cost American jobs and technology. For the first time, Americans will have a means, accepted under the WTO rules, to combat such measures as forced technology transfer, mandated offsets, local content requirements and other practices intended to drain jobs and technology away from the U.S. As stated above, we will be able to export to China from home, rather than seeing companies forced to set up factories in China in order to sell products there.