In rebuff to Bush, US House rejects key Vietnam trade bill

[Ron Burgundy]

AFP - The US House of Representatives rejected a bill aimed at normalizing trade relations with Vietnam despite calls by President George W. Bush's administration to pass it ahead of his visit to the former battlefield enemy state.

The House voted 228 to 161 on the bill to grant "permanent normal trade relations" (PNTR) status to Vietnam, falling short of a required two-thirds majority, officials of the chamber said.

The decision surprised many as legislators had spoken in favour of having the final hurdle in normalising US-Vietnam ties removed before Bush's visit to Vietnam to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation on November 18-19.

Legislation to grant Vietnam PNTR status has been held up in Congress for months.

In its absence, US businesses will not benefit from the full terms of Vietnam's liberalisation under the World Trade Organization (WTO). Hanoi won recent approval to become the 150th WTO member.

But Bush's Republican party lawmakers have not given up, vowing to bring up the bill for another vote and attempting to have it passed with a simple majority through an amendment of the House rules.

"The bill is expected to be brought up by a regular order on Wednesday of this week," said Kevin Madden, spokesman for House majority leader John Boehner of Bush's Republican party, which in last week's elections lost control of the new Congress beginning January 2007.

The rejection of the bill is seen as a rebuff to Bush as the Repubicans currently control the 435-member House and 100-member Senate.

White House spokesman Tony Snow had appealed to Congress Monday to clear the bill "as Vietnam reforms, transitions and reassesses its role in the region."

Among those who voted against it was Tom Lantos, the ranking Democrat in the House international relations committee.

"Mr Lantos will be voting against it as he votes against all free trade related agreements for the simple reason that they are often unfair to US labor and do not necessarily promote equality for labor overseas," his spokeswoman Lynne Weil told AFP before the vote.

The has also to be cleared by the Senate before Bush could sign it into law.

Just ahead of the vote in the House Monday, a senior US official said the Bush administration was hopeful the bill "will pass in the US Congress in the next few days and the President will have that in his pocket as he visits Vietnam."

In addition, the US State Department announced Monday it was dropping Vietnam from its blacklist of nations that severely violate religious freedom in what was seen as a reciprocal move.

Earlier, Vietnam released a US activist whose case was seen as an obstacle to the legislation's easy passage.

Thuong Nguyen "Cuc" Foshee was freed and deported after more than a year in jail and convicted last week on terrorism charges.

A US senator from Florida, where Foshee lives, had threatened to hold up a bill authorizing PNTR until her release.

Vietnam, whose human rights record has come under constant questioning by Western groups, is currently ineligible for PNTR because it is subject to provisions of US law which withhold the status from certain communist or ex-communist countries.

The United States typically terminates such legal provisions and grants countries PNTR as part of their accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO).