Saturday 06
September
2008, San José, Costa
Rica
Bush Won't Press
Panama Trade Vote Before Colombia
U.S., Colombian Summit
Due In Mid-September
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High Power Explosives On
Bus
Venezuela Boosts Housing
Plan
Argentina Reiterates
Worry on US Fourth Fleet
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Bush Won't Press Panama
Trade Vote Before
Colombia
By Doug Palmer
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -
President George W. Bush
does not want Congress
to vote on a free trade
agreement with Panama
before it votes on a
similar deal with
Colombia, Bush
administration officials
said on Tuesday after a
major obstacle to
approval of the Panama
agreement was removed.
Pedro Miguel Gonzalez,
who is wanted in the
United States on charges
of killing a U.S.
soldier in 1992, stepped
down on Monday as
president of Panama's
National Assembly.
This created an opening
for the White House to
push for quick approval
of the Panama trade pact
before two other much
more controversial
agreements with Colombia
and South Korea.
However, the U.S.
officials said Bush had
no plans to ask Congress
to do that.
"We believe the FTAs
(free trade agreements)
should be acted upon in
the order they were
signed," said Sean
Spicer, a spokesman for
the U.S. Trade
Representative's office.
"Once Colombia is acted
upon, we hope to see
action on Panama and
South Korea."
The Bush administration
still thinks there is a
chance Congress will
approve the Colombia
pact this year, even
though the House of
Representatives voted in
April to indefinitely
delay action on the
pact.
"The FTAs should be
voted on in regular
order. And, as the
president stressed in
his radio address this
weekend, all three FTAs
should be approved by
the Congress promptly,"
White House spokesman
Tony Fratto said in an
email.
Democrats, including
presidential candidate
Barack Obama, have said
Colombia needs to do
more to reduce violence
against trade unionists
before Congress can
approve that pact.
Obama and other
Democrats also want to
renegotiate the South
Korea pact to strengthen
its auto and other
manufacturing
provisions, which they
say favors Seoul too
much.
GUNNED DOWN
Army Sgt. Zac Hernandez,
aged 22, was gunned down
outside Panama City in
1992, just hours before
a visit by then
President George H. W.
Bush.
Gonzalez, who remains a
member of the Panamanian
legislature, was
acquitted by a
Panamanian court of
being involved in the
killing.
The United States signed
the free trade pact with
Panama in June 2007, and
was surprised two months
later when Panamanian
lawmakers selected
Gonzalez as their
leader.
Before that the U.S.
Congress had appeared
set to approve the
Panama agreement
following a deal between
House Democratic leaders
and the White House.
That deal required the
Bush administration to
add stronger labor and
environmental provisions
to the free trade
agreements with Panama,
Peru, Colombia and South
Korea.
Congress overwhelmingly
approved the Peru
agreement late last
year. But the White
House refused to submit
the Panama agreement
while Gonzalez was still
in office, or before the
Colombia agreement. |
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