FEINSTEIN SAYS SHE'LL BLOCK BUSH TRADE BILL.

Byline: LISA FRIEDMAN Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- During his trip in Vietnam on Friday, President George W. Bush vowed to put permanent normal trade relations with the country on the front burner when Congress returns next month. But he's getting resistance from San Francisco-based Gap Inc. and other major retailers.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein has moved to block the trade bill, joined by Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., where Nike Inc. officials share concerns of other California retailers about a provision in the measure they say will burden apparel vendors in the United States.

``We're still hopeful that it can be resolved,'' Feinstein spokesman Scott Gerber said Friday.

The bill is needed for U.S. firms to take advantage of low tariffs Vietnam will enact when it enters the World Trade Organization. And it is particularly significant for California, home to 42 percent of the nation's 988,000 Vietnamese. Los Angeles alone exports $331.7 million worth of goods to Vietnam each year and imports more than $2 billion annually.

``They are not in the league of, say, China, but they are a major player,'' said Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. ``Everybody views Vietnam as an attractive potential place in which to do business.''

House GOP leaders tried to give the bill quick passage last week before Bush went to Vietnam. But it failed to get the needed two-thirds majority vote, and House leaders expect it to come for another vote in December.

``I believe it's going to happen,'' Bush told Vietnam's President Nguyen Minh Triet at Hanoi's presidential palace.

Erik Autor, vice president of the National Retail Federation that represents Gap Inc., said the company is primarily concerned about a provision allowing the Commerce Department to investigate if it sees evidence of ``dumping'' -- exporting a product to the U.S. at an unfairly low price.

The provision was inserted as a compromise between the Bush administration and Sens. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., whose home-state textile industry leaders were pushing to keep quotas in the bill.

Autor called the possibility of random investigations``incredibly disruptive for trade.'' He said the deal threw a wrench in his industry's strong support for permanent trade relations with Vietnam.

``It really distresses us that these backroom deals are being cut with the textile industry in ways that are going to undermine trade relations with Vietnam,'' he said.

lisa.friedman(at)langnews.com

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