Congress is about to vote on two pieces of legislation with important implications for national security: the reauthorization of the Export Administration Act and permanent normal trade relations (formerly known as most-favored-nation status) for China. One would think measures of such import would call for thorough debate. Instead, the congressional leadership -- at the behest of an ardent business lobby and the Clinton administration -- wants to speed things along.
On the export front, the administration for six years has had virtual free rein to regulate (or not regulate, as the case may be) U.S. export policies. That's because the previous export law lapsed in 1994. And, as the country learned through the Cox Committee and other investigations, the administration botched its responsibility to control the export of militarily-relevant technologies to potential adversaries.
Senate Banking Committee chairman Phil Gramm, unfortunately, wants the full Senate to vote on a flawed export-control bill before any of the key national security committees -- Armed Services, Foreign Relations, Intelligence, or Governmental Affairs -- can ensure that it will prevent the export of dangerous technologies. To their credit, the chairmen of these committees -- senators John Warner, Jesse Helms, Richard Shelby, and Fred Thompson -- have asked Trent Lott not to bring the bill to the floor until their committees can hold hearings.
There is certainly need for such review. As the measure stands, neither the State Department nor the Defense Department can veto an export license. This substantially increases the sway of the Commerce Department, which has never met an export it didn't want to expedite. This is precisely the opposite of what the Cox Committee recommended.
Meanwhile, the House leadership has announced that it will seek a vote on giving China its coveted permanent normal trade status as quickly as possible, perhaps even before negotiations are completed between the European Union and China over the terms of China's accession to the World Trade Organization.
In light of China's history of non-compliance with previous trade agreements, the devil really is in the details here. Forcing a vote before all the facts are known about the terms of Beijing's entry into the WTO is hardly justifiable. Before agreeing to give up one of the few bits of leverage it has, Congress ought to be certain that the benefits that are supposed to flow from China's entry into the WTO will in fact do so. Don't hold your breath.