April 15, 1999
Web posted at: 1:07 a.m. EDT (0507 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The White House, trying to placate business critics unhappy with its failure to strike a trade agreement with China, has pledged to intensify negotiations with the goal of sending a completed deal to Congress in June.

Commerce Secretary William Daley said Wednesday that he believed U.S. and Chinese negotiators could fairly quickly resolve the differences that prevented agreement being reached during last week's meeting between President Bill Clinton and Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji.

Daley disputed suggestions that once an agreement is reached, the administration will delay sending it to Congress for fear opponents of expanded trade with China have the upper hand because of new allegations about human rights abuses and charges that China stole U.S. nuclear secrets.

China is seeking to strike a trade agreement with the United States to lower its barriers to American manufactured goods, farm products and financial services in return for U.S. support for China's membership in the World Trade Organization, the Geneva-based body that sets the rules for global trade.

Congress must get involved because the United States will be required to eliminate its annual review of China's tariff privileges once China joins the WTO. The annual debate on renewing China's current trade privileges occurs in June each year.

Daley said the administration would push for permanent lower trade barriers as part of this year's debate if a trade agreement with China has been negotiated by June.

"If we get the deal, we are going with the deal. We have got to get China into the WTO," Daley said. "That is our goal if we get the right deal."

Last week, China offered what many major U.S. industries considered extremely favorable concessions in hopes of reaching agreement during Zhu's visit to the United States.

But Clinton rejected China's package because it did not contain enough protections for U.S. steel and textile companies, prompting the Chinese to angrily threaten to withdraw the trade concessions they had offered in hopes of reaching agreement.

Clinton spoke for 20 minutes by telephone with Zhu on Tuesday night, however, and both leaders committed to restarting the talks. A joint statement said the two countries will resume negotiations in Beijing by the end of this month with an aim to "move intensively" to a final deal.

U.S. Deputy Trade Representative Robert Cassidy, the lead China negotiator, is expected to travel to Beijing soon to resume the talks.

And though Zhu's visit failed to secure China's immediate membership in the WTO, he appeared to have smoothed rocky relations between Beijing and Washington.

Zhu wrapped up his nine-day, six-city tour of the United States on Wednesday with a speech before students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, urging Americans not to be concerned with the sizable U.S. trade deficit with China.

"Don't make such a big deal out of this trade deficit," Zhu said. "This is not such a serious problem."

The United States estimates the deficit to be $57 billion, but China claims the figure is much lower -- only $21 billion. An independent study has put the trade deficit at about $35 billion.

Zhu spent much of his U.S. visit lobbying Congress, business leaders and farmers to support China's entry into the WTO.

But perhaps Zhu's most notable accomplishment was wooing the American public. His tour came at a time when tensions between China and the United States are running high because of charges of Chinese espionage and differences over the handling of Kosovo.

Using humor and frank statements, the Chinese prime minister walked a fine line between appealing to the U.S. audience without seeming too soft to the Chinese government back home.

"I love the Chinese people. I love the American people," Zhu said Thursday when he was welcomed at the White House.

While human rights demonstrators confronted him at every stop, Zhu appeared moved by the friendly reception he was given by his hosts. He made light of one group of protesters outside his New York hotel.

"Even though I had stuffed cotton into my ears, I was unable to get a decent night's sleep," Zhu said.

Correspondent Andrea Koppel, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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