It was 25 years ago today when President Bill Clinton stood in the Rose Garden and signed the United States – China Relations Act into law, which granted permanent normal trading relations (PNTR) with China.

That law would change the U.S.-China trading relationship forever. It gave China the same trade terms as America’s allies, and it greenlit China’s entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO), integrating their developing economy into the global trade system.

At the time, the world’s “expert class” all predicted PNTR would be an economic gift for American workers and industry. Testifying before Congress in May 2000, then-Treasury Secretary Larry Summers claimed that “On this issue there has been only one answer: that welcoming China into the global economic system is right for

See Full Page