Bill to monitor China trade defeated in US
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-07-27 09:07

Legislation to strengthen monitoring of Chinese trade practices was defeated in the US House Tuesday, AP reported.

House Democrats accused the Republican majority of trying to rush through the bill in order to secure wavering votes for the Central American Free Trade Agreement, which is expected to reach the House floor this week.

"This bill has nothing to do with China. It has everything to do with getting votes for DR-CAFTA," AP cited Rep. Charles Rangel, top Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee, as saying in reference to the trade deal with the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.

The vote was 240-186 for the bill, short of the two-thirds majority needed under a special procedure, normally for non-controversial bills, that limits debate time and does not allow amendments.

Rep. Phil English, author of the legislation, questioned the Democratic opposition, saying his bill would "send a strong signal to Beijing that Congress will not sit idly by while China's mercantilist trade policy injures U.S. employers and costs us jobs."

English has acknowledged that the decision by the Republican leadership to move quickly on his China bill made it easier for him and others with concerns about the government's enforcement of trade policies to support the Central American agreement, according to the report.

English's bill, which could still be reintroduced under regular procedures, would make it easier to apply U.S. countervailing duty law to subsidized exports from "nonmarket economies" such as China and establish a monitoring system of China's compliance with trade obligations on intellectual property rights and market access for U.S. goods.

It would also require the Treasury Department to submit a report to Congress every six month analyzing the application of the new exchange rate mechanism just adopted by China.

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