Washington – Legislation to normalize trade relations with Vietnam was defeated in the House on Monday, four days before President Bush makes his first visit to the former enemy country.
The measure failed to win the necessary two-thirds majority it needed to pass under a procedure House Republicans adopted in an effort to rush it through with limited debate. It received 228 votes in support – 32 short of what was needed. There were 161 votes against it.
Ways and Means Committee aides, however, said Republicans planned to bring the measure up again Wednesday under normal procedures, which will require only a majority for passage. The proposal gained 228 votes, 10 more than the 218 majority that would be needed under the normal process.
The administration is hoping to gain approval of the measure before Bush meets later this week with Vietnamese leaders in Hanoi.
However, the proposal also faces obstacles in the Senate, where the administration has had to offer textile-state senators assurances that it will impose penalty tariffs on Vietnamese textile products if the country is found to be selling those products at unfairly low prices.
U.S. retailers were pushing for assurances that these anti-dumping duties would not be used in an arbitrary fashion to keep Vietnamese products off U.S. store shelves.
The House debate occurred on the first day Congress reconvened after last Tuesday’s elections, in which Democrats picked up enough seats to gain control of both the House and the Senate.
Rep. Clay Shaw, R-Fla., one of the Republicans beaten in the Democratic wave, noted wryly that he hoped trade liberalization would continue in the next Congress, although “I regret I will not be a part” of the debate.
