Bush Administration to
Push Latin America Free
Trade Deals
By Martin Crutsinger
WASHINGTON (AP) —
Commerce Secretary
Carlos Gutierrez said
Thursday the Bush
administration would use
its last year in office
to push for approval for
three pending free trade
agreements with
Colombia, Panama and
South Korea.
He said the
administration was
optimistic that the
deals can win approval
despite the fact it is
an election year and
both the House and
Senate are controlled by
Democrats who have grown
more skeptical of trade
in light of soaring U.S.
trade deficits and the
loss of 3 million
manufacturing jobs since
2000.
He pointed to strong
support last fall for
congressional passage of
a free trade deal with
Peru. However, the three
pending agreements face
much more opposition
than that agreement did.
Gutierrez said the
administration hopes
Congress will take them
up in the order that
they were signed
starting with Colombia
and followed by Panama
and South Korea.
Part of that strategy
may reflect the view
that the Colombia deal
has the greatest chances
for passage this year.
The administration plans
what Gutierrrez called a
"full court press" to
win approval of the deal
with Colombia over the
next couple of months,
including taking U.S.
lawmakers to Colombia so
that they can see first
hand the progress that
country has made in
curbing violence and
fighting drug
trafficking.
Opponents of the deal
with Colombia say the
nation has not done
enough to curb violence
against union
organizers, including a
number of murders.
But Gutierrez said the
government of President
Alvaro Uribe has made
great strides in
combatting the murders,
kidnappings and
terrorism that have
plagued the country as
well as working with
U.S. support to crack
down on drug
trafficking.
"Now is the time to move
forward and help them
make more progress
instead of putting in
jeopardy all of the
progress that has been
made," Gutierrrez said
in a meeting with
reporters.
Gutierrez said it would
not only benefit the
United States
economically by removing
tariffs on U.S. exports
to that country but also
politically by
strengthening a strong
U.S. ally and countering
the influence of harsh
U.S. critic Hugo Chavez,
the president of
Venezuela.
"We need to move as
quickly as we can to
help an ally," Gutierrez
said.
But all three deals face
an uncertain future in
Congress this year,
because of opposition by
Democrats including some
of the party's
presidential candidates
such as Sen. Hillary
Rodham Clinton and
former North Carolina
Sen. John Edwards.
Tom Donahue, president
of the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce, told reporters
earlier in the week that
business will work to
get approval of the
agreements, rejecting
suggestions of any type
of trade moratorium.
"We are the largest
exporting nation in the
world," Donahue said.
"The suggestion that we
back off trade
agreements, trade
expansion, is to suggest
that we stop providing
opportunities for
American workers and
American communities to
participate in the
global economy."
Gutierrez said the
president has not given
up hopes of completing
global trade
negotiations being
conducted under the
auspices of the World
Trade Organization.
However, the Doha Round
of trade negotiations
still remained at an
impasse because of
battles between wealthy
countries and developing
nations over such issues
as farm subsidies.
In a separate interview,
Christopher Padilla,
Commerce's
undersecretary for
trade, said it was wrong
to think the
administration's trade
agenda will be harmed by
the fact that Bush has
just one more year in
office. He said former
President Bill Clinton
won approval for major
legislation normalizing
trade relations with
China at the end of his
administration while
Bush's father succeeded
in negotiating the North
American Free Trade
Agreement with Canada
and Mexico.
"There is a lot of
precedent for getting
things done in the last
year of an
administration," he
said. "We certainly hope
to repeat that."
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