Reuters
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration is prepared to pursue a broad and aggressive U.S. trade agenda, including talks on bilateral and regional free trade agreements as well as new global talks under the World Trade Organization, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick said on Wednesday.
"The message I want to send to other countries is that the United States is willing to negotiate," Zoellick said in testimony prepared for delivery before the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee. "We are willing to open if they open, but if others are too slow, we will move without them."
In his remarks Zoellick repeated the Bush administration's call for new presidential authority to negotiate agreements such as the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas and new global trade pools under the WTO.
Zoellick stressed the need for President George W. Bush to be able to tell other leaders at a summit of the Americas in Quebec City in late April that "new trade promotion authority is on its way." This authority is popularly called "fast-track" because it allows speedy congressional consideration of trade agreements negotiated by the executive branch.
Zoellick also said the administration was committed to working with Congress to enact a free trade deal with Jordan, hammered out last year by the Clinton administration. However, in his prepared testimony, Zoellick did not say whether the Bush team would try to alter labor and environmental provisions that some Republicans find objectionable.
Bush's top trade official also said the administration will work with Congress to approve a Vietnam trade agreement, negotiated under the previous presidency, and will continue talks with Chile and Singapore on new free trade deals.:
