Bush seeks broader power from Congress to negotiate trade pacts
By Scott Lindlaw
Associated Press

WASHINGTON — President Bush pressed the Senate on Thursday to act by April 22 to broaden his power to negotiate trade pacts and to renew trade preferences for four South American countries. “The time for delay must end,” Bush said.

Bush took the unusual step of setting a deadline for Senate action Thursday in a speech at the State Department, shortly after he announced that he was dispatching Secretary of State Colin Powell to violence-torn Israel for emergency diplomacy.

The president said he is confident there is enough support among Democrats and Republicans to pass both bills, and he hopes to watch Senate debate on them on April 22.

“These bills are good for America, they’re good for our friends,” Bush said.

The president noted that several of his initiatives have passed the Republican-controlled House in recent months, only to stall in the Democratic-controlled Senate. He said members of Congress particularly tend to resist granting so-called “trade promotion authority” because they don’t fully understand how it works.

“The good thing about TPA is it allows me to negotiate (trade deals) and Congress gets to vote on the terms, up or down.” Bush said. “I need that authority. It is important to have a platform for trade.”

Bush said the United States is party to only three trade agreements, far fewer than most developed nations, partly because Congress has been so slow to act.

“While we’ve been marking time, our competitors have been working and they have been signing agreements,” Bush said. “I don’t fault our trading partners for making progress. But what we need to do is to engage in competition ourselves.”

Bush wants the authority to craft trade deals that can’t be altered by Congress. The House approved it last December in a 215-214 vote secured after GOP leaders gave textile-state lawmakers a written promise that they would work to protect the industry from foreign competition.

Congress has granted every president from Gerald Ford to Bill Clinton trade promotion authority, the power to negotiate new trade agreements that Congress can approve or reject but cannot amend. This authority has not been renewed since it expired in 1994.

Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., wants the Senate to debate trade authority as early as this month. But he insists the bill also feature two other measures — one that would renew trade breaks for Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia and Peru, and another extending a law for retraining displaced workers.

Separate bills giving Bush trade promotion authority and renewing Andean trade preferences already have passed the Senate Finance Committee.

The White House wants them passed swiftly to the full Senate without being bogged down by legislation for displaced workers, which is being debated.

The Andean Trade Preference Act was enacted in 1991 to help the four Andean nations expand trade as an alternative to drug cultivation and trafficking. It expired Dec. 4, but Bush extended duty deferrals in February until May 16.

The White House believes the April 22 deadline would give the Senate enough time to pass both bills before May 16.

Bush’s free-trade calls come weeks after he slapped new tariffs on steel and softwood lumber imported to the United States. The retaliations came in part because the administration concluded foreign governments were unfairly subsidizing those industries. Critics charged the moves were meant to bolster industries critical to his re-election.

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