Today, Chinese imports are basically free to flow into American markets, while American exports to China face a myriad of barriers, both formal and informal. The Sino-American bilateral agreement provides an opportunity to partially level this playing field in exchange for giving up a cudgel that has proven almost entirely ineffective. In other words, it's an agreement you'd expect Levin to endorse, even if, as is his wont, he does so only equivocally. It's true that China has an imperfect record of compliance with trade agreements. But sometimes a weapon can be so ineffective, and so unlikely to become more effective in the future, that the time simply comes to try another approach.
China undoubtedly is in the world economy.
Y et you needn't agree with Levin's stance to sympathize with his predicament. This is a man who cares deeply about American workers and knows as much as anyone in Congress about trade policy. Yet he is being skinned alive by partisans on both sides of the debate. But many PNTR supporters are actu-ally rather indifferent to the substance, as opposed to the utility, of Levin's initiative. Many of them too see it as, well, a fig leaf.