US President Bush on Thursday offered permanent normal trade status to China, calling it "the final step in normalizing US-China relations".
The move, which will go into effect from January 1 next year, was announced by Bush in Crawford, Texas, where he is spending holidays.
China became the member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) last month, an event that was warmly welcomed by the world community.
"This is the final step in normalizing US-China trade relations and welcoming China into a global, rules-based trading system," Bush said in an announcement.
Trade experts in Washington believed that China's entry into the world trade body is "to be globally important underpinning for the US-China bilateral relationship".
(China Daily December 28, 2001)
