
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, May 24, 1990                   TAG: 9005240670
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/1   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

CHINESE GET TRADE STATUS/ BUSH WITHHOLDS SAME BENEFITS FROM SOVIETS

President Bush, juggling delicate international issues, said today that it is premature to grant the Soviet Union preferential trading status, even as he renewed the same benefits for China.

Bush said the political climate in this country would make it "extraordinarily difficult to grant" most-favored nation status to the Soviet Union. "Many in Congress feel a direct linkage there [with the Lithuanian situation] Gorbachev's itinerary unsettled. A3 Kremlin rejects Lithuanian plan. A3 and I must say it concerns me."

Bush also said there are "enormous problems" that he and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev will be discussing at next week's summit that are unlikely to yield immediate agreement, such as final outlines for reunification of Germany.

But he said the two sides are very close to agreement on a treaty to outlaw chemical weapons.

Bush said he had no new encouragement to offer on the continuing standoff in the Soviet Union between the Kremlin leadership and the breakaway Baltic A13 A1 TRADE Trade Republics. Gorbachev has pressed economic sanctions against Lithuania.

The president opened his news conference with a declaration that he was renewing China's most favored nation trading status for another year, despite certain opposition from members of Congress still seething over the anti-Democracy massacre in Tiananmen Square a year ago.

Regarding his China decision, Bush said, "I concluded that is is in our best interests and in the interest of the Chinese people." Bush said ending the system of preferential tariffs for China would drive up costs for American consumers.

At the same time, Bush said he would not grant similar status to the Soviet Union until it enacts liberalized emigration legislation. Such action had been expected on May 31 - timed for Gorbachev's summit visit to the United States - but the vote apparently has been postponed.

"The Soviets have not passed" the legislation, Bush said. "China does have the proper policy."

Bush said he was pleased with the prospects for a chemical weapons treaty at the summit, and said the two sides had done "very well" in the last several days in progress toward an agreement to cut nuclear weapons.

At the same time, he said there was much work still to do on a treaty to cut conventional troops, weapons and tanks in Europe, and singled out the reunification of Germany as a particularly thorny issue that he and his summit partner will discuss.

by CNB