China PNTR

• Resulted from China's agreement to enter the World Trade Organization, taking on the comprehensive multilateral obligations and concessions required of WTO members.
• Congress voted to grant permanent normal trade relations to China once it enters the WTO. The President would no longer have to renew China's normal trade status annually.
• Agreement on China's WTO entry covered the entire range of WTO obligations in goods, services, intellectual property, and dispute settlement.
• The 1979 U.S.-China Bilateral Trade Agreement was less than 6 pages.
  

Vietnam BTA

• Is a bilateral agreement between the U.S. and Vietnam, analogous not to China's WTO agreement but rather to the 1979 U.S.-China bilateral trade agreement.
• Congress will be voting on whether to grant conditional normal trade relations, subject to annual renewal by the President and a possible resolution of disapproval by Congress.
• Agreement lays groundwork for future negotiations on Vietnam's WTO entry by covering many of these areas, but it is not a WTO accession agreement.
• The 2000 U.S.-Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement is 138 pages, and is the most comprehensive such bilateral agreement ever reached.