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The United States’ Republican-led House of Representatives passed a package of trade bills Friday night that includes a measure extending normal trade status to Vietnam.
The lawmakers narrowly approved a raft of trade legislation to normalize trade ties with Vietnam, expand trade preferences for Haiti, and renew duty reductions for the Andean region and over 100 developing nations.
The House of Representatives voted 212 to 184 for the trade package, which is expected to go to the Senate this weekend as part of a larger tax and energy package in an 11th-hour push to close the current Republican-led Congress.
If the Senate should resolve its disputes, pass the package and adjourn, the Republican control of Congress, which has lasted 12 years in the House, would be over. That would set the stage for the next Congress to convene Jan. 4 with Democrats in the majority in both the House and the Senate.
The Vietnam bill would end the Cold War requirement that trade with the Southeast Asian state be reviewed every year.
Sen. Max Baucus, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said the bill "makes certain that more U.S.-made goods will get into Vietnam's markets."
Republican Rep. David Dreier said the Vietnam measure would encourage economic and political liberalization in the Southeast Asian nation and provide access for American companies hoping to crack a booming market.
"This legislation will help to create stronger trading partners for the future, while also recognizing our responsibility ... to help developing countries grow," Republican Rep. Bill Thomas, outgoing chairman of the influential Ways and Means Committee, said in a statement.
The measure grants Permanent Normal Trade Relations to fast-growing Vietnam, 30 years after its war with the United States, but it comes late for President George W. Bush, who arrived empty-handed at a Hanoi summit last month after an initial PNTR vote failed.
The legislation also broadens textile preferences for Haiti, allowing it to increase duty-free exports to the United States of clothes that aren't made with U.S. yarn and fabric.
"We hope that ... we can send a signal to other countries to come to the aid of this poor nation," said New York's Charles Rangel, a Democrat who will head the Ways and Means Committee when Democrats take control of Congress next year.
U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab hailed Friday's vote, saying increased trade had not only helped workers in poor countries but lowered priced for U.S consumers.
Some industry groups, however, are worried that Vietnam's heavy subsidies and other trade policies have damaged the U.S. textile industry severely, costing companies billions of dollars and destroying American jobs.
The trade package also would extend or expand trade breaks for Haiti, sub-Saharan Africa and Andean nations, drawing opposition from supporters of the beleaguered U.S. textile industry.
Eight Republican senators on Thursday wrote congressional leaders, saying 100,000 textile jobs in their region already had been lost due to trade agreements. They said they would oppose "as forcefully as possible" the Haiti measure.
Republican President George W. Bush's trade liberalization efforts could face trouble in the next Congress.
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