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White House seals trade deals as clock ticks on fast-track
By Veronica Smith
AFP
WASHINGTON
Petroleumworld.com 06 29 01President George W. Bush's administration stepped up efforts Thursday to hammer down a series of bilateral free-trade agreements under a special negotiating authority that opposition Democrats plan to let expire.
The United States on Thursday sealed free-trade agreements (FTAs) with Colombia and Panama that had been amended to include labor and environmental provisions agreed between the White House and the Democratic-controlled Congress in May, the US Trade Representative, Susan Schwab said.
A US-Peru FTA signed on Monday was approved Wednesday by the Peruvian legislature, she said, and a free-trade agreement with South Korea would be signed Saturday.
Democrats, who wrested control of Congress in January largely on a voter backlash against Bush and the Iraq war, are eager to reclaim the legislature's constitutional authority in trade negotiations by letting the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) expire.
Under TPA, which was awarded by Congress nearly five years ago, the administration can negotiate trade agreements which only can be approved or rejected by the legislature, but not amended.
Schwab urged Congressman Charles Rangel, chairman of the US House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee, to work with the administration for renewal of the TPA, also known as "fast-track."
In a letter Thursday to Rangel and released by her office, Schwab said, "The case for TPA remains strong for global, regional and bilateral trade negotiations -- and their enhancement of US economic competitiveness."
More than 100 bilateral trade negotiations are currently underway among US trading partners, she said. "It is important that the United States not sit on the sidelines as other countries lock in new preferential trading arrangements with our competitors."
But with a swelling multibillion-dollar trade gap with China blamed for the loss of thousands of US manufacturing jobs, the Bush administration is facing stiff headwinds to TPA renewal.
A coalition of Democratic lawmakers and business, labor and advocacy groups called Thursday for a "new direction for trade" in the post-TPA era.
"Voters in November spoke out against the job-killing trade pacts and fundamentally flawed trade policy of the last decade, Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown said.
"We have a choice to lower our standards or demand our trading partners raise theirs. Today, we set our nation on a new course for trade that works for US businesses and workers, not just multinational CEOs," Brown said in a statement.
Brown outlined trade priorities including strengthening the Treasury Departments authority to address currency manipulation by nations such as China, revamping US trade pacts and setting up benchmarks as a mechanism of accountability in future trade agreements.
The powerful Teamsters union bade "good riddance" to the TPA.
"Since fast-track, trade negotiations have been accelerated to an alarming speed, denying legislators and the public the appropriate time to consider the serious ramifications of these agreements," union president James Hoffa said.
AFP 28 2147 GMT 06 07
Copyright© 2007 AFP. All Rights Reserved.
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