US presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis supports revoking China’s trade status

If he won the 2024 White House race, Republican DeSantis said he would take steps to revoke China’s permanent normal trade relations status

The US Senate voted in 2000 to grant that status to China as it prepared to join the World Trade Organization. Congress would need to approve any steps to remove it

Reading Time:1 minute

Republican presidential candidate, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis at a campaign rally in Eagle Pass, Texas on June 26. Photo: Getty Images / TNS

Published: 12:45am, 10 Jul 2023Updated: 12:48am, 10 Jul 2023

Republican US presidential candidate and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said on Sunday he would take steps to revoke China’s permanent normal trade relations status if he won the 2024 White House race.

“I favour doing that. I think we probably need Congress but I would take executive action as appropriate to be able to move us in that direction,” DeSantis said in an interview with Fox News on Sunday.

The US Senate voted in 2000 to grant that status to China as it prepared to join the World Trade Organization. Any step to remove it would also need congressional approval. The status is a legal designation in the United States for free trade with a foreign nation.

US-China relations have been tense for years over national security issues including Taiwan, US export bans on advanced technologies, China’s state-led industrial policies, human rights issues, the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic and trade tariffs.

Washington has been trying to repair ties between the world’s two biggest economies. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said over the weekend that her meetings with senior Chinese officials in recent days were “direct” and “productive”, helping stabilise the superpowers’ often rocky relationship as her four-day Beijing trip ended.