Mr. President, as a co-sponsor of Senator Thompson's legislation on weapons proliferation, I want to tell my colleagues why I will not support this, or any other effort, to amend H.R. 4444, the legislation to authorize the permanent extension of nondiscriminatory trade treatment to the People's Republic of China.
First, I want to say that I fully agree with Senator Thompson's goals. He wants to reduce the threat posed to the United States by the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. So do I.. He wants to curb the transfer of technologies to rogue nations that might destabilize regional security, threaten our allies, or endanger United States forces. And so do I.
In my view, this administration has not done nearly enough to safeguard the United States from the growing threat of nuclear proliferation. You don't have to take my word for it, Mr. President. For anyone who thinks that the weapons anti-proliferation efforts of this administration have been adequate, and that the world is a safer place under the Clinton-Gore team, just take a look at the Cox Commission Report. Or the report of the Rumsfeld Commission. Both of these reports are compelling, and highly disturbing. But, Mr. President, this is neither the time nor the place to deal with these issues.
The real issue today is whether we will approve this measure to extend permanent normal trade relations with China, and thereby allow the United States to take advantage of a market-opening trade agreement we helped negotiate. An agreement that will mean new sales, more jobs, and increased prosperity for America's farmers, ranchers, and agricultural producers, our service providers, and our manufacturing sector.
Mr. President, I want to make this very clear. A vote to amend PNTR, at this late stage, is a vote against PNTR. If we change so much as one word of this PNTR legislation, it will not be consistent with the legislation passed by the House of Representatives, and will be sent back to that chamber. With less than 20 legislative days to go in this session of Congress, that would kill the PNTR bill for this year.
If PNTR is defeated, China will not suffer. China will still enter the WTO, whether we normalize our trade relations with them or not. If China enters the WTO, and we have not approved permanent normal trade relations status, our farmers, our service providers, our manufacturers will be forced to sit on the sidelines. Our competitors from Europe, Asia, and Canada will have China's market all to themselves. They will win a competitive advantage over us. Perhaps a permanent one. The only ones who would suffer would be our farmers, and our workers. Putting ourselves at this sort of disadvantage will hurt our economy. And it will not help our national security one bit.
Mr. President, the problem I have with linking trade with national security, or with human rights, or with any other worthy cause, is that this sort of linkage assumes that we can only do one thing, but not the other. We can either have human rights in China, or we can have free trade. We can either protect our national security, or we can trade with China and jeopardize our security. I believe these assumptions are false.
Mr. President, our relationship with China is complex. It has more than one dimension. And I believe the United States is big enough, smart enough, tough enough, and sophisticated enough to have more than a one-dimensional China policy. We can have an effective human rights policy with China. We can have a tough and effective national security policy. And we can have a trade policy that serves our vital national interests. We can do all of this at the same time, and do it well. But not if we amend this bill and send it back to the House.
One last thing, Mr. President. I read this morning that thousands of anti-globalization protesters rioted today at the meeting of the World Economic Forum in Melbourne, Australia. Scores of people were hurt. Almost one quarter of the delegates were locked out of the summit by the rioters. One Australian official was trapped for almost an hour in his vandalized car. Leaders of the riot claimed they were successful in blockading the conference. "I think we can claim victory tonight", one of the protest leaders said. The Melbourne riots come right on the heels of similar anti-globalization riots in Davos, Switzerland, Washington, D.C., and last December in Seattle.
Mr. President, these riots are profoundly disturbing. They appear to be growing in intensity and frequency around the world. And they are terribly misguided. Since the United States helped create the global trading system in 1947, free trade has lifted millions of people out of poverty. As poor nations have gained new prosperity, they have improved the health and education of their citizens. They have invested in new technologies to clean up the environment. And all the nations of the world's trade community have helped keep the peace, even during the bleak days of the Cold War.
Today, China is on the verge of rejoining the world trade community it abandoned in 1950. A vote for normalizing China's trade relations with the United States on a permanent basis will reaffirm our support for a member-driven, rules-based trading system. It will highlight the importance of trade as a way to achieve prosperity for all, including the world's poorest nations. And it will repudiate those who would tear down the most successful multilateral trade forum the world has ever known.
I urge my colleagues to support a clean PNTR bill, with no amendments.