Both Clinton and her rival for the Democratic nomination, Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), oppose the Colombia deal. Presumptive GOP presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) supports it.
The trade agreement with Peru was changed to include tougher labor and environmental standards, among other provisions. Even with those changes, more House Democrats voted against the Peru deal than for it.
Identical provisions are in the Colombia pact, but Democrats say this is not enough because of Colombia’s history of labor violence.
“Many Democrats continue to have serious concerns about an agreement that creates the highest level of economic integration with a country where workers and their families are routinely murdered and subjected to violence and intimidation for seeking to exercise their most basic economic rights,” Reid said in a statement.
Twenty-six union organizers were murdered in Colombia in 2007, but the country’s embassy on Monday said this was an 80 percent decline since 2002. In 2007, the embassy said Colombia had its lowest murder rate in 15 years and lowest kidnapping rate in 20 years.
The administration portrayed the deal as a foreign policy tool and anti-terrorism measure. In his comments Monday, Bush said Colombia is a U.S. ally under intense pressure from a hostile anti-American regime in Venezuela. That country’s President Hugo Chavez has met with leaders of leftist terrorist groups in Colombia and has deployed troops to the Colombian border in an effort to “intimidate Colombia’s government and people,” Bush said.
Colombia President Alvaro Uribe “has told members of Congress, and me as well, that approving the free trade agreement is the best way for America to demonstrate our support for Colombia,” Bush said.
Passage of the trade agreement would lower Colombian tariffs on U.S. goods and introduce new investment rules in that country that would foster foreign investment, since companies would get favorable access to the U.S. market. Critics say those rules would serve as an incentive for U.S. plants to produce in Colombia instead of the U.S.
The deal is critical for Colombia, which increasingly is competing with workers in China in the rapidly globalizing economy. Bush also noted that most Colombian exports already receive duty-free access to the U.S. under a trade preference program, which many Democrats support. He said the trade deal would level the playing field by knocking down tariffs faced by U.S. exporters.
Ways and Means ranking Republican Jim McCrery (La.) said the trade deal would improve Colombia’s economy and help it devote more resources to curbing violence. “Refusing to pass this trade agreement will not prevent violence in Colombia,” he said.
Bush on Monday signaled support for enhancing trade adjustment assistance (TAA), an existing program that leading Democrats want to bolster that helps workers hurt by trade. Administration officials repeatedly have signaled a possible deal in which the president would agree to expand TAA in exchange for support on Colombia.
Pelosi and Rangel, however, said Republicans blocked efforts to improve TAA last year. They said the push for the trade deal showed Bush’s priorities on the economy are misplaced.
Congressional leaders are scheduled to meet with Bush on the economy on Wednesday.
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