President Bill Clinton signed into law a landmark China Trade Bill, at a stroke ushering in a new era of open commerce between the world`s most powerful economy and its most populous nation.
This is a great day for the United States and a hopeful day for the 21st century world, said Clinton on Tuesday at a signing ceremony in the White House rose garden attended by key members of his administration and Congress.
The bill grants Permanent Normal Trading Relations (PNTR) to China in a deal speeding Beijing`s long-delayed entry into the World Trade Organisation (WTO). In practice, it guarantees China the same irrevocable low tariff access to us markets as other American trading partners in return for a promise by Beijing`s Communist leaders to throw open their vast market to US firms.

Touting his key policy of engagement with China, Clinton said that the controversial law, which finally cleared Congress last month, would help ease china peacefully into the global economic system.
He said that the legislation, a major personal triumph as his presidency draws to a close, was the culmination of an effort launched by President Richard Nixon nearly 30 years ago to open China to the outside world.
“In the last 60 years of the 20th century, we fought three major wars in Asia, we can build a whole different future there,” Clinton said. Bureau Report