CongressDaily
In China PNTR Debate, A Harvest Of Dissent For Farmers Union Both the North Dakota Farmers Union and Oklahoma Farmers Union, the largest state groups within the National Farmers Union, are unlikely to follow the national group's convention vote last week to oppose permanent normal trade relations with China. North Dakota Farmers Union President Robert Carlson told CongressDaily his board would meet within the next two weeks to decide what position to take. And Terry Detrick, a vice president of the Oklahoma Farmers Union, said his board favors PNTR and likely would follow "hand in glove" North Dakota's action. However, the NFU's Washington lobbyists said they would follow the 64-62 delegate vote against PNTR at the NFU's convention last week in Salt Lake City. Pete Takash, a spokesman for the Minnesota Farmers Union, which is closely aligned with organized labor and led the opposition to PNTR, said the effectiveness of the position NFU delegates adopted would depend on how strongly the state organizations hold the national organization to the position. Detrick said the 64-62 vote against PNTR was so close, "I don't think NFU can take a real firm stand against PNTR." Detrick, who also serves as president of the National Association of Wheat Growers, which favors PNTR, said the NFU vote was a "head count" of delegates and "if we had called for a weighted vote [based on the size of each state's membership], I feel confident the outcome would have been different." In another trade matter, a Senate aide observed Monday that the recent report from the Clinton administration on U.S. participation in the World Trade Organization may have been a missed opportunity to advance the administration's own trade agenda. The Senate aide also noted that there appears to be consensus that there is a problem with regard to resolving disputes on agricultural export subsidies in the WTO, and he suggested the administration could have made that point more strongly in the report. To have done so would have helped advance the administration's own trade agenda, he commented. Senate Minority Leader Daschle, who is supporting permanent normal trade relations status for China, said Monday, "We have the votes in the Senate," although "I don't know whether they exist yet in the House." He also said he considers it "very likely" that China would become a "full-fledged" member of the WTO this year.
-- By Jerry Hagstrom, with Stephen Norton and Geoff Earle contributing:
