The House Ways and Means Committee is demanding that the Beijing government improve its human rights policies before the United States renews special trade privileges for another year. However, the committee, which originates all trade legislation in Congress, rejected an effort to withdraw the most-favored-nation trade benefits that President Bush extended to China last month. Those benefits guarantee the lowest tariffs available on goods imported into the United States. ``Our object ought to be to improve human rights in China, not to cut off trade,'' Rep. Donald Pease, D-Ohio, said Wednesday in arguing successfully for his bill, which the committee approved by voice vote. Rep. Dan Rostenkowski, D-Ill., chairman of the committee, supported Pease's bill. ``We are all outraged by human rights atrocities taking place in China,'' but revoking trade benefits would be counterproductive, he said. Rep. Richard Schulze, R-Pa., made several unsuccessful attempts to toughen the bill. Despite the massacre of protesters in Beijing's Tianamen Square in June 1989 and other human rights violations, ``the resolution says `you get one more year to do a little better,''' Schulze said. ``We have said we are going to turn our backs on it, that the almighty dollar ... is much more important.'' Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich., described Pease's bill as ``an attempt to create enough common ground that the president and Congress can stand on it together.'' Anything tougher almost certainly would be vetoed, he said. In granting the trade benefit this year, Bush had to consider only China's emigration policy and was allowed by law to waive any concerns about it in the national interest. The bill would not affect the designation for the next 12 months. Before renewing most-favored-nation status next year, the bill would require the president to consider whether the Beijing government has made significant progress in several areas. They include: _Terminating martial law. _Accounting for citizens who were arrested as a result of nonviolent expression of political beliefs during the uprising that led to the Tianamen Square massacre. _Easing restrictions on freedom of the press. _Ceasing harassment of Chinese citizens in the United States. The president also would have to consider how denial of the trade benefit would affect Hong Kong, the British crown colony that borders China. Some members quarreled with the ``significant progress'' phrase in the bill. ``If you shoot 1,000 people instead of 5,000, have you made progress?'' asked Rep. Marty Russo, D-Ill. Bipartisan legislation in the Senate would withdraw most-favored-nation status outright on grounds the Beijing government continues to engage in torture, use of forced labor, denial of emigration and suppression of domestic dissent, as well as support of Khmer Rouge forces in Cambodia. Almost all nations, except developing countries, whose exports are allowed tariff-free treatment, have been given most-favored-nation status. Exceptions include Cuba and Vietnam.
