Associated Press

Washington, April 30:

The Bush administration says it is pursuing a strategy of diplomatic engagement with China that offers the best hope of opening China’s market to more us exports and narrowing the huge trade gap between the two countries. But critics are harshly accusing the administration of selling out American workers by refusing to pursue allegations that China is gaining unfair trade advantages by violating Chinese workers’ rights and manipulating its currency.

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen John Kerry, hoping to capitalise on Americans’ anxiety about the loss of jobs to overseas competition, said that when it comes to China “the administration is all talk and no action.” He pledged in a statement on Wednesday that if elected president, “I am going to fight to keep US jobs in America and I’m not going to sit idly by when China or any other country pursues policies that hurt our economy.” The official Xinhua News Agency carried word of Washington’s announcement but no comment in response. China’s trade ministry had no comment, a spokeswoman said, and the Labor and Social Security Ministry said it was unaware of the report.

Last month, the AFL-CIO petitioned the administration to launch an investigation of its claims of widespread abuse of Chinese workers’ rights. The labor federation petitioned for an investigation under a provision of US trade law known as Section 301, which allows for punitive tariffs to be imposed against countries found to be pursuing unfair trade practices.

On Thursday, a group of Democratic senators and House members introduced legislation to reinstate a “Super 301” provision in US trade law that would require the administration to make an annual report to Congress on the most onerous unfair trade practices and launch negotiations to remove those barriers. If negotiations failed, the United States could pursue trade sanctions.

The legislation, being sponsored by senator Jon Corzine, a New Jersey Democrat, and Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat, and in the House by Representative Charles Rangel and Sander Levin, is similar to a proposal Kerry put forward in a speech Monday attacking president George W Bush’s policies on trade. The AFL-CIO petition contended that China’s abuse of worker rights amounted to an unfair trade practice under US trade laws that had given China a wage advantage of between 47 per cent and 86 per cent and had cost the loss of an estimated 727,000 US factory jobs.