Bush Vs. Colombia

BUSH FORCED TO VOTE ON COLOMBIA TRADE

Published: April 7, 2008

WASHINGTON вЂ" President Bush said on Monday that he was sending a free trade agreement with Colombia to Congress, and called on the lawmakers to ratify it soon, to strengthen America’s national security, its economy and its image among other nations.

“The need for this agreement is too urgent” for delay, Mr. Bush said, adding that to wait any longer in this election year would be to risk that Congress would adjourn without a vote on the pact.

Once it is submitted to Congress вЂ" a formality the president said would be taken care of immediately вЂ" the legislators have 90 business days to approve or reject it.

The agreement with Colombia, negotiated in 2006, has become a subject of fierce controversy, dividing Republicans from Democrats and Democrats from one another. Supporters of the agreement argue that, by opening new markets in Colombia for American farm goods, machinery, chemicals and plastics, the pact would stimulate the United States economy at a moment in history when the economy sorely needs it.

Opponents say the agreement would accelerate a depressing trend, encouraging American companies to transfer their manufacturing operations to Colombia and adding to the woes of sagging Rust Belt areas in the United States.

President Bush, who has been speaking in favor of the trade agreement for weeks, conceded on Monday that there could be some harmful effects at home, but he said the benefits would far outweigh them. The United States imports grains, cotton and soybeans from Colombia, much of it duty-free under temporary accords already in place. But American exports to Colombia вЂ" agricultural products, automobile parts, medical and scientific equipment вЂ" remain subject to tariffs.

“I think it makes sense to remedy this situation,” the president said. “It’s time to level the playing field.” Trade between the United States and Colombia amounted to about $18 billion in 2007.

The issue has already stoked the presidential campaign, with Senator John McCain of Arizona, the presumptive Republican nominee, chiding the two leading Democratic candidates, Senators Barack Obama of Illinois and Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, for opposing the Colombia free trade agreement.

The issue has also had internal repercussions for the Clinton campaign, as one of the senator’s top advisers, Mark Penn, stepped down amid a furor over his lobbying on behalf of the trade agreement in his role as chief executive of a global public relations firm.

President Bush asserted on Monday that approval of the agreement “will advance American national security interests in a critical region,” in large part because Colombia’s president, Ð"Ѓlvaro Uribe VÐ"©lez, has done much to eliminate internal violence, including attacks on labor activists, and root out the drug-traffickers who for years linked Colombia and cocaine in the public’s mind.

Moreover, Mr. Bush said, Colombia is a vital counterweight to neighboring Venezuela, where the socialist president, Hugo Chavez, is openly anti-American. Many Democrats have said it is important, in view of the attitude of Venezuela, to bolster relations with Latin American allies of the United States.

But Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic majority leader, said on Monday that President Bush’s perspective was skewed.

“There is strong support for Colombia in the United States Congress, evidenced by the fact that Colombia is the largest recipient of United