TPT May 2008

From the AmericaS

Foreign policy The Colombia pact: President Bush confuses an already raucous contest over his successor by forcing a free-trade vote “In most parts of the country, free trade is a dirty word,” Stuart Rothenberg, a nonpartisan political analyst, told the Houston Chronicle ( ‘Free-trade plan with Colombia likely to cause stir,’ 6 April). Bennett Roth, of the Chronicle ’s Washington Bureau, noted that exit polls taken during the 4 March primaries in Texas and Ohio would seem to confirm this view. He wrote, “Some 81 per cent of Ohio voters who participated in the exit polls said NAFTA took away US jobs. Even in Texas, which has been more friendly to free trade, 59 per cent said NAFTA had cost American jobs.” As the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada provides a focus for resentment over blue-collar job losses, particularly in the Rust Belt states of the Midwest, the primaries are compelling the candidates to succeed President George W Bush to stake out their positions on free trade. Briefly put, the presumptive Republican nominee, Senator John McCain, is for it; the leading contenders for the Democratic nomination, Sens Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, are against. Advisers to Mrs Clinton and Mr Obama have said both candidates oppose not only the trade deals pending with South Korea and

Panama, but also a highly politically charged bill for a pact with Colombia. This would dismantle trade barriers between the US and the nation whose leader is Washington’s staunchest ally – some might say its only ally – in South America. The battle lines were drawn more sharply on 7 April, when Mr Bush signed to send the Colombia free-trade agreement to Congress. This set a ‘fast track’ timetable that will force a Senate vote by September, just weeks before Election Day on 4 November. “A political fight is assured,” Mr Roth wrote, “The only question is, how bruising will it become?” Mr Bush is promoting the agreement in terms of prospective economic and national security benefits to the United States. He has also told selected audiences that its approval would support President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia as a counterweight to President Hugo Chávez, of Venezuela. Mr. Chávez is a vocal critic of globalization and of US foreign policy, and an especially sharp thorn in Mr Bush’s side. The Houston Chronicle noted that business interests including the Greater Houston Partnership are pressing for the agreement that would eliminate Colombia’s high tariffs on US-made products. Every year, goods worth nearly $3.4 billion are shipped between the United States and Colombia through the Port of Houston.

Dorothy Fabian , Features Editor (USA)

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