USA*ENGAGE

July 7, 2000

Dear Senator:

We are writing on behalf of USA*Engage to urge you to oppose S. 2645, the "China Nonproliferation Act." USA*Engage is a business coalition of more than 670 U.S. companies that was formed in 1997 to advocate common sense reforms in the use of unilateral economic sanctions for foreign policy purposes. Although S. 2645 addresses a very serious issue, the remedy it provides is neither effective nor in the United States national interest.

USA*Engage opposes the bill because it mandates sweeping unilateral economic sanctions on U.S. farmers and exporters doing business with China without assessing the effectiveness of such sanctions or assuring coordinated multilateral action to prevent proliferation. The bill is, in fact, precisely the kind of unexamined unilateral sanctions measure that USA*Engage has opposed. We have advocated procedural reforms to ensure that proposed sanctions do not do more harm than good.

Specifically, S.2645 would injure U.S. farmers and exporters and isolate the U.S. from China while our European and Asian competitors would quickly supplant U.S. suppliers. We oppose the bill for a number of additional reasons:

-- the bill is unnecessary because the President already has ample authority under current law to deal with unauthorized transfers of weapons technology and delivery systems;

-- the bill ignores the lessons learned from the inherent defects of mandatory sanctions, as exemplified by the 1998 application of the Glenn amendment automatic sanctions against India and Pakistan;

-- by cutting off export financing and agricultural credits and by denying export licenses for most U.S.-origin high technology, S.2645 would gut many of the benefits of the U.S.-Chinese market access agreement negotiated in November of 1999;

-- by requiring an annual vote on whether to impose unilateral non-proliferation sanctions on China, the bill would eliminate a major feature of extending Permanent Normal Trade Relations to China;

-- S.2645 has not had hearings or Committee review and, therefore, fails to meet minimal standards of adequate congressional consideration.

We are convinced that engagement and extensive contact with China is far more likely to influence their behavior than punitive sanctions. Accordingly, USA*Engage was created to encourage the U.S. government to apply common sense criteria to all newly proposed unilateral foreign policy economic sanctions. This legislation fails to meet this test in a critically important area of U.S. policy. We therefore urge you to oppose it when it comes before the Senate.

Sincerely,

Bill Lane	Frank D. Kittredge
Chairman	Vice-Chairman