USTR defends handling of trade deals with Congress
Reuters | May 6, 2008
USTR defends handling of trade deals with Congress
By Doug Palmer
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab on Tuesday defended the White House’s decision to force a vote on a free trade pact with Colombia, even though it provoked a showdown with Congress that crippled a 34-year-old procedure used to win approval of trade deals.
"I would argue (President George W. Bush) had no choice and were we to repeat this, the president would still have no choice," Schwab said in remarks at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
Bush submitted the agreement to Congress in April, 18 months after it was signed and at the last possible date to ensure lawmakers would vote on it before they were scheduled to adjourn for the year in September, Schwab said.
But rather than follow longstanding "fast track" procedures that guarantee a yes-or-no vote on trade agreements within 90 days, House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi pushed through a rule change that allowed her to indefinitely delay action on the free trade pact.
Pelosi said Bush ignored the advice of congressional leaders not to submit the agreement, forcing Democrats to reassert control over the legislative agenda.
The Democratic-run Congress approved a free trade deal with Colombia’s neighbor, Peru, in December.
But Pelosi and other senior Democrats had been insisting that Colombia do more to stop the killing of trade unionists before Congress votes on that pact.
’GAPING HOLE’
The House action has blown a "gaping hole in U.S. trade policy for the foreseeable future" because other countries can no longer be sure Congress will vote on trade deals the White House negotiates, Peterson Institute President Fred Bergsten said.
Schwab said she agreed with that analysis, but told another questioner that she did not think the White House had acted recklessly in trying to force a vote.
She said "the rupture" in fast track procedures occurred earlier, when congressional leaders rebuffed every attempt the administration made to try to submit the agreement.
It was unprecedented for Congress to refuse to even consider an agreement negotiated under fast track rules, which date back to 1974 and have been used by both Republican and Democratic presidents to approve trade deals, she said.
It is now up to Pelosi to bring the Colombia agreement to the floor for a vote and repair relations with one of the United States’ strongest allies in South America, Schwab said.
The White House was still determined to win approval of the trade deal and two others with South Korea and Panama by the end of this year, she said.
She accused congressional Democrats of failing to live up to a May 10, 2007, agreement that was supposed to reestablish bipartisan support for trade.
However, Democrats say that deal did not guarantee votes on Colombian and South Korean agreements.
Schwab said the resolution of a recent beef dispute with South Korea improved chances for approval of that deal.
But Pelosi and other Democrats say the agreement favors South Korean carmakers too much.
(Additional reporting by Missy Ryan; Editing by Eric Beech)
