A perennial, high-profile issue in U.S.-China trade relations from 1989, the year of the Chinese government¿s suppression of political dissidents during and after the Tianamen Square incident, to 1997, has been the U.S. renewal of China¿s status for Most-Favored-Nation (MFN) duty treatment. Since 1989, the U.S. has renewed this status annually; however, each time the process for the renewal has occurred under strenuous discussion and debate between U.S. policy makers. It is likely these discussions will receive even more attention. This paper presents a background discussion of the recent history of China¿s MFN status, the composition of U.S. imports from China in 1995, and a brief summary of the literature examining this question. Illus.