~ Le Viêt Nam, aujourd'hui. ~
The Vietnam News

[Year 1997]
[Year 1998]
[Year 1999]
[Year 2000]
[Year 2001]

US ambassador takes fight for Vietnam's trade status to Congress

WASHINGTON - Washington's Ambassador to Vietnam Pete Peterson on Thursday warned Congress here that a move to downgrade the country's trade status with the United States could severely dent relations with Hanoi. The United States has denied Vietnam normal trade relations, but US businesses in Vietnam can claim export guarantees or government credits under an amendment to a 1974 Trade Act designed to encourage freedom of emigration.

President Bill Clinton granted Hanoi the so-called Jackson-Vanik waiver for one year earlier this month, a move Congress has 60 days to challenge. Republican congressman Dana Rohrabacher is currently mounting an attempt to revoke the waiver with a bill harshly critical of Vietnam's human rights record. Peterson said in testimony to the Ways and Means Committee of the House of Representatives that recent advances in US-Vietnam relations were due, simply to "engagement."

A revocation of the waiver "would be very damaging to our overall relationship" said Peterson, who predicted a "bright future" for Vietnam-US trade despite a recent stagnating of economic reform in the country. The waiver had promoted "greater Vietnamese cooperation on the total range of bilateral issues" including economic reform and the search for remains of US servicemen still missing in action after the Vietnam War, he said.

"Congressional approval of the waiver sends a vital message to Vietnam's leadership and people that the United States wants a cooperative, constructive relationship with Vietnam," he said. In a combative testimony, Rohrabacher argued that Vietnam had disqualified itself from special trade treatment by what he described as its appalling human rights record. "I propose we give the communist dictators of Vietnam a strong message from the US Congress that corruption, mismanagement and repression will no longer be ... subsidized by American taxpayers," he said.

Peterson said a Vietnamese trade delegation was expected in Washington soon, to thrash out remaining differences blocking a long-awaited trade accord between the two governments. A draft deal paving the way for the United States to grant permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) to Vietnam was initialed by Vietnamese negotiators last year, but later rejected by the country's communist leadership. US congressional leaders have since expressed strong opposition to any renegotiation of the original draft.

Agence France Presse - June 15, 2000.