Then, she says, she'll be pushed the other way by a Chinese dissident group that doesn't want Congress to vote away its regular review of China's trade status. Some members of Congress are trying to make life easier for Lowey, Baldacci and their fellow agonizers. Enough members want to square the circle on this issue that compromise is likely. But beneath the human rights debate is a separate argument about the economy. While business and labor talk about strengthening the United States' negotiating hand with China, each is worried about its negotiating power with the other.
Business wants to expand the free movement of goods and capital.
Labor fears this will cost jobs and reduce wages. Supporters of permanent trading status face two large hurdles. One is the recurring promise from free-trade supporters to link more open trade with relief for those falling behind in the new economy. But the relief never comes. In the meantime, he'll get what he can for his potato farmers and others in rural Maine for whom big trade bills are a distant abstraction.