Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 114 Part 1.djvu/929

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PUBLIC LAW 106-286—OCT. 10, 2000 114 STAT. 893 laws, rules, and administrative measures affecting their ability to sell tEeir products in the Chinese market. (8) On November 15, 1999, the United States and the People's Republic of China concluded a bilateral agreement concerning terms of the People's Republic of China's eventual accession to the World Trade Organization. (9) The commitments that the People's Republic of China made in its November 15, 1999, agreement with the United States promise to eliminate or^ greatly reduce the principal barriers to trade with and investment in the People's Republic of China, if those commitments are effectively complied with ' and enforced. (10) The record of the People's Republic of China in implementing trade-related commitments has been mixed. While the People's Republic of China has generally met the requirements of the 1992 market access memorandum of understanding and the 1992 and 1995 agreements on intellectual property rights protection, other measures remain in place or have been put into place which tend to diminish the benefit to United States businesses, farmers, and workers from the People's Republic of China's implementation of those earlier commitments. Notably, administration of tariff-rate quotas and other traderelated laws remains opaque, new local content requirements have proliferated, restrictions on importation of animal and plant products are not always supported by sound science, and licensing requirements for importation and distribution of goods remain common. Finally, the Government of the People's Republic of China has failed to cooperate with the United States Customs Service in implementing a 1992 memorandum of understanding prohibiting trade in products made by prison labor. (11) The human rights record of the People's Republic of China is a matter of very serious concern to the Congress. The Congress notes that the Department of State's 1999 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for the People's Republic of China finds that "[t]he Government's poor human rights record deteriorated markedly throughout the year, as the Government intensified efforts to suppress dissent, particularly organized dissent.". (12) The Congress deplores violations by the Government of the People's Republic of China of human rights, religious freedoms, and worker rights that are referred to in the Department of State's 1999 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for the People's Republic of China, including the banning of the Falun Gong spiritual movement, denial in many cases, particularly politically sensitive ones, of effective representation by counsel and public trials, extrajudicisil killings and torture, forced abortion and sterilization, restriction of access to Tibet and Xinjiang, perpetuation of "reeducation through labor", denial of the right of workers to organize labor unions or bargain collectively with their employers, and failure to implement a 1992 memorandum of understanding prohibiting trade in products made by prison labor. SEC. 203. POLICY. 22 USC 6902. It is the policy of the United States—