News-Info-Alerts

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Re: Bereuter Statement

Date: November 02, 2000

Honorable Doug Bereuter
Chairman, Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific
September 19, 2000

"A Prelude to New Directions in U.S.-Vietnam Relations: The 2000 Bilateral Trade Agreement"

The Joint Subcommittee meeting will come to order.

The Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific and the Subcommittee on International Economic Policy and Trade meet jointly to examine the current and future state of U.S.-Vietnam relations in the context of the new Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) signed between Washington and Hanoi on July 13, 2000.

After taking nearly five years of frustrating and difficult negotiations, this new Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) represents what I believe to be an important milestone in the process of normalizing incrementally our bilateral political, economic, humanitarian and consular relationships with Vietnam. Focusing for a moment on the economic relationship, this evolving process began in 1994 with the lifting of the Vietnam War-era trade embargo and the establishment of ambassadorial-level diplomatic relations the following year. Further incremental steps -- such as allowing for the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) and the U.S. Export-Import Bank to support American businesses exporting to or operating in Vietnam -- were taken with the President’s granting Vietnam a waiver from the requirements of the Jackson-Vanik amendment. Congress has supported that waiver by increasingly large margins each of the last three years. The new BTA represents yet another step which will be followed by President Clinton’s trip to Vietnam following the APEC summit in November.

I believe that this incremental policy and the new BTA is in America’s own short- and long-term national interest. It is a flexible policy allowing us to take advantage of new opportunities -- such as those in the trade arena now available with the BTA -- while at the same time preserving our leverage to help influence change in the more problematic facets of our relations such as human rights. Indeed, I believe our incremental approach also builds on Vietnam’s own policy of political and economic reintegration into the world.

The Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific has held a number of hearings on Vietnam in recent years, conducting both broad reviews of the general direction of U.S.-Vietnam bilateral relations and more defined examinations of specific issues such as the fullest possible accounting of American POW-MIAs, the plight of Vietnamese boat people and the failure of Vietnam to meet its human rights obligations. Today’s hearing is the first that focuses primarily on bilateral economic relations; however it certainly does not do so at the exclusion of these other important issues. Clearly, U.S.-Vietnamese trade relations cannot be viewed as if in a vacuum.

At this time, the BTA has yet to be transmitted to Congress. I certainly welcome any insights our USTR, Ambassador Barshefsky, may have on when we should expect to see that transmittal. With adjournment hopefully just a few weeks away, there is not time this year for this Congress to consider and approve the BTA, a prerequisite to the agreement’s actual implementation. Thus, I envision today’s hearing as an early opportunity to begin the process of Congressional consideration of such a BTA. Before Congress will approve this significant step forward in relations, there will be many questions for the Administration to answer satisfactorily. For example, is the BTA a prelude to new directions in U.S.-Vietnam relations? What actual benefits can the United States generally and American business interests specifically expect from the BTA? Does approval of the BTA enhance or serve to postpone needed progress in other non-economic concerns such as POW-MIA accounting, human rights, emigration and political reforms?

To help our two Subcommittees answer these and many other important questions, including those pertaining to the President’s Vietnam trip, we are very fortunate to have with us today a truly outstanding panel of high-level and distinguished Administration witnesses. The first panel will consist of Ambassador Charlene Barshefsky, the United States Trade Representative. While the BTA is the result of hard work from many different agencies, of course, it is the USTR that has provided the yeoman’s service in the negotiations with the Vietnamese -- as was the case with the bilateral market access agreement for China’s accession to the WTO. Ambassador Barshefsky, it certainly was a great pleasure to work with you on the China PNTR issue and I understand that in an hour or so the Senate will be voting on final passage of H.R. 4444 as passed by the House and thankfully un-amended by the Senate. In that regard, I appreciate that you have responsibilities associated with that vote and are limited in the time you can spend with us here.

Following Ambassador Barshefsky the Joint Subcommittee will hear from a panel from the Departments of State and Commerce. Representing the Department of State is Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs Stanley Roth. Mr. Roth, a former distinguished staff member with the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is a valued and frequent witness before the Subcommittee and has focused on U.S.-Vietnam relations for many years in many capacities in the State Department, the Pentagon and here on this Subcommittee itself.

Representing the Department of Commerce is Deputy Under-Secretary of Commerce for International Trade Timothy Hauser. Mr. Hauser is a 21-year employee of the Department who serves as the chief operating officer of the International Trade Administration. He oversees the day-to-day operations of the ITA in its trade promotion, trade policy and trade law enforcement activities.

As is consistent with the practices of the Subcommittees, the entire written statements of the witnesses will be made part of the record, without objection. But, I would ask our witnesses to limit their oral remarks to approximately ten minutes to allow maximum time for discussion and dialogue.

Let me now turn to the Chairwoman of the Subcommittee on International Economic Policy and Trade and the very distinguished gentlelady from Florida, Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen for any introductory comments she may have. Then, I will turn to the distinguished gentleman from California and senior Democrat on the Asia and Pacific Subcommittee, Mr. Lantos, and then the distinguished gentleman from New Jersey and senior Democrat on the IEP&T Subcommittee, Mr. Menendez. We will then proceed directly to the testimony by Ambassador Barshefsky as her time before us is limited due to the upcoming China PNTR vote in the Senate. The opening statements of any other Members will, without objection, be included in the Subcommittee Record.