President Bush is expected to grant China a one-year-extension of most-favored-nation trading status, even though the action could provoke a new China-policy confrontation with Congress, administration officials say.
Bush may outline his decision - continuing preferable tariff rates for Chinese exports - at Tuesday's weekly leadership meeting with congressional Republicans.The president was expected to formally notify Congress of the move before the end of the week, said officials who insisted on anonymity.
Bush was planning to make the extension provisional, based on China's human-rights performance over the coming months, said the officials.
Bush went over details of his decision with national security adviser Brent Scowcroft on their flight back to Washington Monday night from California.
Sen. Pete Wilson, R-Calif., who accompanied Bush on the flight, said that he did not expect Congress to react as negatively as it had last winter when Bush vetoed legislation extending the visas of Chinese students.
"It's not as emotional an issue," Wilson said. "Most people in the nation don't even know what MFN is."
Most-favored-nation (MFN) trading status guarantees China the same treatment as this nation's best trading partners, including lowest-possible tariffs.
This benefit has provided preferential tariffs for about $12 billion in Chinese products shipped to the United States each year, mostly textiles and toys.
Bush is required under law to act one way or another by June 3. But sources said he would rather deal with the issue - sure to touch off another round of criticism in Congress - now rather than wait until the deadline, which is only one day before the first anniversary of China's bloody repression of pro-democracy demonstrators in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.