Clinton Signs China PNTR Ending Annual Review, Enabling WTO Entry and Manufacturing Exodus

President Bill Clinton signs the U.S.-China Relations Act of 2000, granting China Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) status and ending the annual congressional review process that had existed since 1980 under Jackson-Vanik provisions. The House passed the legislation on May 24, 2000 and the Senate approved it 83-15 on September 19, 2000, following a massive corporate lobbying campaign.

Clinton frames the agreement as heavily favoring the United States: “It requires China to open its markets—with a fifth of the world’s population, potentially the biggest markets in the world—to both our products and services in unprecedented new ways.” He emphasizes “the one-way nature of the concessions,” claiming China grants the U.S. significant market access while America merely maintains existing policies. The Economic Policy Institute warns that the administration’s own analysis suggests “spiraling deficits and job losses.”

The PNTR legislation enables China’s December 11, 2001 entry into the World Trade Organization, fundamentally reshaping the global economy. Over the subsequent two decades, millions of U.S. manufacturing jobs migrate to China, entire industrial sectors collapse, and trade deficits explode - the exact opposite of Clinton’s promises. The agreement represents the culmination of neoliberal trade policy that prioritizes corporate access to cheap labor over domestic manufacturing, workers’ rights, and community stability. Like NAFTA before it, China PNTR demonstrates how “free trade” agreements marketed as mutually beneficial primarily serve multinational corporations’ ability to arbitrage labor costs and environmental regulations while devastating American working-class communities.