U.S. Congressman Proposes Bill to Revoke CCP’s Permanent Most-Favored-Nation Trade Status

Republican Congressman Chris Smith announced on March 22 that he will join with a bipartisan group to introduce a bill aimed to revoke the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) permanent Most-Favored-Nation trade status.

Congressman Chris Smith, a long time China human rights advocate, emphasized that the bill is to revoke the permanent normal trade relations with the CCP in order to punish its heinous human rights abuses – including, in particular, the regime’s systematic genocide and forced labor against Uighurs and other ethnic minorities in Central Asia.

The bill requires a connection between the CCP’s trade status and its human rights situation. According to the bill, the U.S. President must certify every year that the CCP makes prudent and continuous efforts to improve human rights in order to grant China the status of normal trade relations. After the bill is introduced, the bill must be passed by both the House of Representatives and the Senate and signed by the President before becoming law.

Congressman Smith said that Russia could lose its permanent normal trade status as a result of Russia’s aggression of Ukraine, that the CCP’s support of Russia makes this bill particularly in time for the U.S. to re-evaluate the CCP’s preferential trade treatment. The United States’ opposition to connecting China’s human rights and trade status in the past has given a “free pass” to the CCP for human rights violation.