It was 25 years ago today when President Bill Clinton stood in the Rose Garden and signed the United States – China Relations Act into law, which granted permanent normal trading relations (PNTR) with China.
That law would change the U.S.-China trading relationship forever. It gave China the same trade terms as America’s allies, and it greenlit China’s entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO), integrating their developing economy into the global trade system.
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That law would change the U.S.-China trading relationship forever. It gave China the same trade terms as America’s allies, and it greenlit China’s entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO), integrating their developing economy into the global trade system.
At the time, the world’s “expert class” all predicted PNTR would be an economic gift for American workers and industry. Testifying before Congress in May 2000, then-Treasury Secretary Larry Summers claimed that “On this issue there has been only one answer: that welcoming China into the global economic system is right for the American economy and for the global economy.”
Former Obama and Biden economic advisor Gene Sperling concurred, saying “The question is whether passage of PNTR will make positive change in China more or less likely. We believe it will make positive change more likely.”
Lael Brainard, former Director of the National Economic Council under President Biden, also supported opening trade relations with China, asserting that, “This Agreement [U.S.-China WTO agreement] will also strengthen our ability to assure fair trade and to defend our agriculture and manufacturing base from import surges and unfair pricing.”
Of course, let’s not forget then President Bill Clinton, who promised that the new law “will move China in the right direction. It will advance the goals America has worked for in China for the past three decades. And of course, it will advance our own economic interests.”