The framework must also keep pressure on China to improve its human rights record, he said. Levin is the Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Trade. It is appropriate that Congress and the American public use the debate over China's integration into the world trading system to shine a spotlight on China, its future, as well as our future economic, political and strategic relationship with this increasing important nation.
China presents both tremendous challenges and important opportunities.
The agreement negotiated with China would open to the U.S. one of the fastest growing markets for American goods and services. It would draw China, with its weak rule of law, into an international rules-based system. But, it is clearly not that simple. China is the world's largest state-controlled economy, where free markets and the rule of law are still in the rudimentary stages of development. During a ten day trip to Beijing and Hong Kong in January, I saw graphically that change is irreversible, but its direction is not inevitable.