New York Times | By the ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Gearing up for a fight with Congress, President Bush argued Monday that the United States will trail the rest of the world in food exports unless he gets enhanced trade negotiating authority. "I want America to feed the world," he said.
Bush met with agriculture industry representatives at the White House to present his argument for Congress to grant "fast track" authority, which would allow him to negotiate an international trade agreement that Congress can approve or reject but cannot amend.
Every president has held trade negotiating authority since Congress began granting it in 1974. Former President Clinton's authority expired in 1994 and an effort to renew it in 1997 failed in a congressional feud over environmental and labor rights protections.
"We're missing some great opportunities, not only in our hemisphere, but around the world," Bush said. "These are opportunities for people who earn a living the hard way. ... These are opportunities for working people."
The GOP bill, introduced last week by House Ways and Means trade subcommittee chairman Phil Crane, R-Ill., preserves the president's right to negotiate side agreements on matters not directly related to trade. It does not include penalties or any other provisions on enforcing labor and environmental standards.
In the Senate, new Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., is cool to any legislation that does not have labor and environmental protections.
Trade promotion authority would allow Bush to finish negotiating a Western Hemisphere free trade agreement and engage in a new round of trade liberalization talks that the World Trade Organization is to begin in November.
Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman told reporters Monday that other countries would be less willing to negotiate with the United States if the president lacks trade authority. "If this fails, it may take a generation or so to launch another round" of trade talks, she said, which could leave farmers in a lurch.
Bush noted that exports generate 25 percent of U.S. farm revenues, and said American farmers face "incredible barriers to trade" such as high tariffs on beef, wheat and butter. Administration officials also pointed out that the United States is party to only two of 130 free trade agreements worldwide.
"The job of this administration must be to open up more markets for ag products. I want America to feed the world," Bush said. "It starts with having an administration committed to knocking down barriers to trade, and we are."
But House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., said Monday that the legislation now pending "isn't even getting us to first base" on a compromise.
"We are a long way from having an agreement. I'm not particularly optimistic given the view of the Republican leadership in the House," Gephardt said. "I don't intend to vote for a new trade round that does not make it clear that labor and environment will be included in the core text."
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said Republican leaders would seek ways address the environmental and labor issues "so that they don't become protectionism." But, he acknowledged, "If we went entirely the way that the labor leaders in America wanted to go, for every Democrat we would pick up we'd lose a Republican."
Bush rejected the labor and environmental arguments as "all kinds of excuses not to trade."
"I want a bill that doesn't have these codicils on it that frighten people from trading with us," Bush said. "If you're a poor nation, it's going to be hard to treat your people well. And if you're a poor nation, it's going to be hard to have good environmental policy."
Copyright 2001 The New York Times CompanyNew York Times:
