News-Info-Alerts

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Re: Trade Bill Moving Along

Date: September 07, 2001

"Vietnam Trade Bill Clears House
By JIM ABRAMS, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - House endorsement of an agreement to normalize trade with Vietnam is a major step toward eliminating the economic barriers that have existed since the end of the Vietnam War a quarter-century ago.

With the voice vote Thursday, the House approved a bilateral trade agreement reached between Hanoi and the Clinton administration in July 2000 and sent to Congress by President Bush in June.

The Senate Finance Committee has approved the agreement, which now awaits action by the full Senate.


The agreement brings fundamental changes to U.S.-Vietnam trade. Vietnam would join the great majority of nations that may sell their goods in the United States at low tariff rates. In exchange, Vietnam agreed to reduce its tariffs, eliminate nontariff barriers, protect intellectual property rights and open its markets to American service and investment companies.

Vietnam, said Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas, R-Calif., "has the potential to be a strong trading partner for America." He added that "continued engagement with Vietnam must lie at the core of our relationship."

Vietnam is the 13th largest nation in the world, with 80 million people, but trade with the United States was only about $1.2 billion last year. Thomas predicted that Vietnam's exports to the United States, mainly textiles and light manufactured goods, could more than double with normal trade relations.

Vietnam is one of only six nations in the world denied normal trade relations, meaning its goods are subject to much higher tariffs. Others are Afghanistan, Cuba, North Korea, Laos and Yugoslavia.

For Vietnam, still a communist state, approval of normal trade relations would give it the same status applied to China the past two decades: The president must issue annual waivers for requirements that it is complying with freedom of emigration.

China is to get permanent trade status when it joins the World Trade Organization, probably later this year.

The U.S. military withdrew from Vietnam in 1973, but it was not until 1994, after years of contention over U.S. prisoners of war and servicemen missing in action, that President Clinton lifted the trade embargo. He established diplomatic relations in 1995. In 1998, he issued the first waiver making commercial deals with Vietnam eligible for U.S. government loans and credit guarantees.

That waiver has been renewed annually since then, the last time by Bush in June.

The administration said in a statement that the bilateral trade agreement "binds Vietnam to an unprecedented array of reforms" and would help improve human rights and account for American MIAs.

Opponents of the trade agreement argued that Vietnam persecutes its citizens and has not done enough to account for MIAs. Several lawmakers from the South expressed concerns about imports of Vietnamese catfish.

The trade deal, said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., shows why "the dictators of the world do not pay attention to us and think that we are being either frivolous or lying about our commitment to human rights."

The House on Thursday also approved, 410-1, a measure barring U.S. nonhumanitarian aid to Vietnam unless the president certifies that Vietnam has made progress in such human rights areas as releasing political and religious prisoners. The measure authorizes funds for groups promoting democracy in Vietnam.

Vietnam's prime minister initiated the ratification process in Vietnam last June by sending the trade agreement to President Tran Duc Long. "