Washington, February 10:

Legislation was introduced in the US Senate today to repeal permanent normal trade relations status for China, citing Beijing’s alleged unfair trade practices and a rocketing US trade deficit.

The US Congress granted China the PNTR status in 2000, which paved the way for the most populous nation to enter the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and for US businesses to deal more seamlessly with Beijing.

But senators Byron Dorgan and Lindsey Graham, co-authors of the bipartisan legislation, said the status should be rescinded in retaliation for China’s unfair trade practices which they said were responsible for the huge US trade deficit, wh-ich could surpass $200 bi-llion in 2005. They cited practices including piracy, currency manipulati-on, violation of its own la-bour laws, and barriers to prevent US products from entering Chinese market.

“There’s nothing normal or fair about any of these methods,” Dorgan, the Democratic senator from North Dakota, told a news conference with Graham, a South Carolina legislator from president George W Bush’s Republican Party.