ACCESSION NUMBER:00000
FILE ID:96121002.ECO
DATE:12/10/96
TITLE:10-12-96  SCRUTINY OF U.S. EXPORT CONTROLS FOR CHINA SEEN LIKELY

TEXT:
(Attention growing from administration, Congress)  (400)
By Bruce Odessey
USIA Staff Writer

Washington -- Representatives from both the Clinton administration and
Congress say U.S. export controls relating to China will get special
scrutiny over the next year.

During a December 10 panel session, Ian Baird, deputy assistant
secretary of commerce, said he expected a major inter-agency review of
policy on exports of advanced technology to China.

As with other aspects of trade with China, the export control issue
splits U.S. interest groups. Businessmen like those attending this
panel session organized by the Practising Law Institute generally
favor relaxed controls.

Panelist Christopher Hankin, now a staff member in the House of
Representatives International Relations Committee and formerly a State
Department official, said members of Congress have a number of
opportunities in 1997 to consider statutory changes in export controls
for China.

One opportunity would arise if Congress attempted to overturn any
presidential decision extending for another year most-favored nation
(MFN) status for imports from China.

Another would arise if Congress was reviewing administration policy on















ACCESSION by China to the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Still another opportunity would come if Congress passed a reformed
Export Administration Act (EAA), as it tried and failed to do in 1990,
1992, 1994 and 1996. Since the EAA expired in 1994 the Clinton
administration has kept its export control system operating under
emergency law.

Hankin identified four overlapping congressional factions with
influence on China legislation: those concerned with weapons
proliferation, human rights, Taiwan and the soaring U.S. bilateral
trade deficit. He offered no prediction about the outcome of any
export control proposals on China.

Hankin said he sensed, though, that some members of Congress wanted to
lower the present threshold for imposing U.S. sanctions against
countries that engage in weapons proliferation, citing an intelligence
report that China sold Pakistan specialized magnets for use in
centrifuges that enrich uranium.

China has also been criticized for selling arms to Iran. Chinese
Defense Minister Chi Haotian, visiting Washington December 9,
responded to reporters about charges of weapons proliferation: "Some
of the issues have been exaggerated, and some of these issues simply
do not exist."

On another issue at the panel session, Baird of the Commerce
Department said the administration was considering modest relaxation
of controls on exports of oscilloscopes and machine tools.
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