January-February 2000
Issue:

Cover by JHDesign

These same principles have guided President Clinton to completion of the historic agreement on China's accession to the World Trade Organization. While a significant amount of work remains ahead as I write, including multilateral work at the WTO, this agreement marked the decisive moment in a 13-year negotiating process.

Through a set of comprehensive, detailed and enforceable commitments, stretching from agricultural commodities through manufacturing, high technology industries, finance and other services industries, to electronic commerce and the Internet, our agreement with China will open new opportunities in the world's second-largest economy, and strengthen guarantees of fairness for Americans on the job and on the farm.

On another level, the agreement represents the commitment by the governments of the United States and China to find common ground and work toward a peaceful and mutually beneficial relationship in the years to come. This is fundamentally important not only for our two countries, but for the entire Pacific region.

To win the full benefits of this agreement, both in concrete economic terms and in terms of its potential to contribute to our strategic interests in Asia, we must in the months ahead ensure congressional passage of permanent Normal Trade Relations--that is, the tariff levels guaranteed to virtually all our trading partners today. I look forward to working with you to finish the job; and to open a new century with the same degree of optimism, confidence and American leadership that the Open Door gave us a century ago.