We welcome today’s announcement by U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab that the Chinese government has agreed to eliminate some of its export subsidies in response to a World Trade Organization (WTO) case filed by USTR in February.  This is an important accomplishment, and we commend Ambassador Schwab’s commitment to ensure that the Chinese government lives up to its WTO obligations on this front.  However, we hope that USTR and the Bush administration will show equal diligence in addressing worker rights violations, import safety, and currency manipulation – all of which contribute to the enormously lopsided trade imbalance between the United States and China.

           
Ambassador Schwab said at today’s press conference that, “Where China fails to live up to its WTO obligations, we will use the full array of tools available to secure compliance.”  Unfortunately, to date, the Bush administration has declined to use most of the tools at its disposal to address the often blatant unfair trade practices of the Chinese government – and the result has been thousands of lost jobs and failed businesses.

           
With respect to currency manipulation, this Administration has squandered one opportunity after another to send a clear message to the Chinese government that the administration will treat continued currency manipulation as an illegal subsidy and will seek WTO remedies if it continues.  Instead, interminable dialogue has led only to interminable delays.

           
With respect to the egregious and systematic abuse of workers’ human rights, the Bush administration has utterly failed to raise these issues effectively at the highest levels of the government.  Chinese workers are still denied their right to form independent unions and to bargain collectively; Chinese labor laws are frequently ignored, both by Chinese and multinational companies; and child labor and forced labor are unfortunately becoming more prevalent. 

           
Well-documented and egregious abuses of workers’ rights in China are undeniably putting U.S. workers at an unfair disadvantage, yet the Bush administration has failed to take even minimal steps to address these concerns.  Worker rights abuse has never been on the official agenda of the bilateral economic discussions, whether via the Joint Committee on Commerce and Trade or the Strategic Economic Dialogue.

           
We appreciate the Administration’s action in getting a commitment from the Chinese government to eliminate certain export and import-substitution subsidies that were in blatant violation of WTO rules.  But these subsidies should have been eliminated when China joined the WTO – six years ago.  And there are many other equally urgent issues that also need immediate attention and action.