forced labour.
On Taiwan, accession to the GATT, the
Administration's support for accession on terms acceptable to GATT contracting parties.
Senator Baucus professed himself happy with the letter.
3. The Senate vote took place on 23 July and the Mitchell Bill (proposing conditions in 1992) was adopted by 55 votes to 44. This bill still needs to be reconciled with the House bill before a final Senate vote is taken
possibly in September.
4.
This was a better result that the Administration had
The President needs to be sure of 34 votes
been expecting.
in the Senate to be able to sustain a Presidential veto if and when the House and Senate can reconcile their two bills.
5.
There is now some doubt that the Democrats will seek to pursue the MFN issue further this year. One option is to remove all conditions except those on human rights to attract more support for a bill. But Senators who are concerned primarily about non-profileration might then not support it.
A second option is to attach even more conditions, knowing that the Presidential veto will succeed but hoping that some political mud will stick. Our
Washington Embassy, however, believe that Mitchell may not now send the bill to the White House this year but keep it for the MFN debate in 1992. This would save the embarrassment of a successful Presidential veto and could fare better in a Presidential election year.
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