Politics

Bush Pushes Free Trade Zone

April 17, 2001 / 9:43 AM EDT / AP

President Bush assured hemispheric neighbors Tuesday that he is fighting vigorously for a free-trade zone spanning North and South America, insisting it will help foster democracy and prosperity.

"We must affirm our commitment to complete negotiations on the Free Trade Area of the Americas by January 2005," Mr. Bush said, three days before the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City.

"Nothing we do in Quebec will be more important or have a greater long-term impact," Mr. Bush told the Organization of American States. "It will make our hemisphere the largest free-trade area in the world, encompassing 34 countries and 800 million people."

The president is trying to build support for the free-trade zone, but faces resistance abroad and at home, where members of Congress and a wide range of grass-roots groups oppose it.

Thousands of protesters are expected for the summit, and the largest security force in Canadian history will be in place. Critics of the proposed pact fear it will increase pollution, drive jobs to other countries and compromise worker safety.

Mr. Bush wants lawmakers to grant him "fast-track" negotiating authority, which would allow him to negotiate a trade deal to submit to Congress for an up or down vote, without alteration.

Mr. Bush had suggested during the presidential campaign that the next U.S. president would look weak attending the Quebec summit without fast-track authority, but he has yet to submit legislation formally requesting it.

Monday, he defended his efforts to obtain the authority, calling it "one of my top priorities in Congress" and saying he and his Cabinet members have pressed for it at meetings with more than 100 lawmakers.

He pledged to "intensify this effort" when he returns from Quebec.

"Trade promotion authority gives our trading partners confidence that they can rely on the deals they negotiate," Mr. Bush said. "It allows us to seize opportunities to expand the circle of trade and prosperity."

He gave a broad argument for the free-trade zone, saying it could help cure chronic woes in parts of Latin America, such as poverty and corruption.

"Democratic freedoms cannot flourish unless our hemisphere also builds a prosperity whose benefits are widely shared, and open trade is a central foundation for that prosperity and that possibility," he said.

Trade "applies the power of markets to the needs of the poor," Mr. Bush said. "It spurs the process of economic and legal reform. It helps dismantle protectionist bureaucracies that stifle incentives and invite corruption."

He also made clear he would negotiate trade pacts with individual nations, naming Chile, Jordan and Singapore as examples.

Mr. Bush began setting the stage for the Quebec summit Monday when he met with Chilean President Ricardo Lagos.

The meeting with Lagos opened a busy presidential schedule designed to promote Mr. Bush's first multination summit and its goals of expanding trade, strengthening democracie and improving the quality of life throughout both American continents.

Thursday, he meets with Argentine President Fernando de la Rua.

His first international gathering offers Mr. Bush a chance to articulate a trade agenda and demonstrate competence on foreign affairs after a presidential campaign that raised questions about his foreign-policy credentials.

Already, trade ministers agreed to launch the new trade zone in 2005 and begin talks in 2002 on removing tariff barriers. The Bush administration lost a bid to move up the starting dates.

At a meeting with Mr. Bush this month, lawmakers warned they are under pressure from the same union and environmental interests who fought unsuccessfully to block the North American Free Trade Agreement among the United States, Canada and Mexico.

In his Oval Office remarks Monday, Mr. Bush did not rule out compromise with Democrats.

"People are always trying to get me to put my cards on the table," he said when asked if there was wiggle room in his position.

Some Latin American countries, particularly the largest, Brazil, have opposed pushing for an early agreement because they want more time to strengthen their own industries before exposing them to international competition.

Others fear the hemispheric trade zone could lead foster a U.S. imperialism.