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Thursday July 13, 2:54 AM
Mixed response for renewed US trade ties with VietnamUS legislation aimed at normalizing trade relations with Vietnam drew a mixed response in a congressional hearing, with business organizations split on the issue. US officials proposed the plan in a bid to complete Washington's reconciliation with its former enemy, and the administration of US President George W. Bush called on lawmakers at a Senate hearing to support the effort.
"We believe that WTO accession for Vietnam will benefit the United States economically, will promote reform in Vietnam, and will support broader American interests in Vietnam and in Southeast Asia as a whole." Congress is considering bipartisan legislation to grant Vietnam Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) status. Vietnam, whose human rights record has come under constant questioning by Western groups, is currently ineligible for PNTR because it is subject to provisions of US law which withhold the status from certain communist or ex-communist countries. The United States typically terminates such legal provisions and grants countries PNTR as part of their accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO). The US Chamber of Commerce, representing a broad group of US businesses, endorsed the effort. The measure "will allow US businesses increased access into the fastest growing major Southeast Asian country," the Chamber said, adding that this would help US companies "obtain the full benefits of Vietnam's market opening commitments." But Auggie Tantillo, executive director of the American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition, representing a number of industrial sectors including textiles, expressed opposition. "Our opposition is based on the view that granting Vietnam PNTR replicates the flawed trade policy model of allowing China to join the WTO before that country made sufficient progress transitioning from a non-market, state-run economy to a non-subsidized, free-market economy," he said. "As applied to Vietnam, this model grants unlimited access to the US market to producers in Vietnam who use massive subsidies, intellectual property theft, pennies-an-hour wages, low or nonexistent labor standards, and less than minimal environmental standards to undercut US domestic manufacturers. "In return, US domestic manufacturers gain less than full access to a market that is only a fraction of the value of the US market," he said.
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