China urges US to delink human rights from trade

BEIJING (AFP): China urged the United States yesterday to remove "man-made obstacles" to developing commercial ties, reiterating that linking trade with issues such as human rights would hinder US access to the China market.

China's most-favored-nation (MFN) trade status is "a purely trade issue (and) it should not be entangled with issues with which it has nothing to do," Chinese Foreign Trade Minister Wu Yi told Xinhua before departing next week as the head of the biggest-ever Chinese trade mission to the United States.

The comments came as the United States, which has made renewal of Beijing's MFN status this year conditional on human rights improvements, expressed deep regret over the latest detention of China's most celebrated dissident Wei Jingsheng.

"China has long opposed the practice of linking MFN status to human rights issues ... the two sides should in no way let this non-trade factor stand in the way of furthering the bilateral trade and economic cooperation," the Xinhua report cited Wu as saying.

"The United States should take positive and pragmatic steps to cast aside man-made obstacles and make joint efforts with China to push forward the bilateral trade and economic relations," Wu said.

Dangling the potential of the huge Chinese market before Washington, Wu also called on the US administration to take other steps to improve ties.

These included lifting restrictions on US technology exports to China and resuming financing of feasibility studies for US Trade Development Agency projects, risk guarantees by the US Investment Co. for China investment and preferential loans by the American Import Export Bank to Chinese construction projects.

"Such actions will further help tap the vast potential of China's imports from the US and the US investment in China," Wu said, suggesting failure to act would have a detrimental effect on US commercial interests here.

Bilateral trade hit US$27.65 billion in 1993, up 11 times on 1979, it said, adding the United States was China's biggest investor -- with 11 billion dollars promised to some 8,000 ventures.

Wu noted that the United States had recently reiterated support for China's bid to rejoin the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, saying Beijing hoped Washington would "keep its promise and be as good as its word."