U.S. president hopes for success on trade bill

Martin Crutsinger, Associated Press, Washington

U.S. President George W. Bush, buoyed with a big trade victory where former President Bill Clinton had suffered a major failure, hopes to score an even bigger legislative triumph in an upcoming showdown vote in the House.

After delaying for months, Republican leaders on Friday set Dec. 6 for a House vote on the legislation that Bush will need to pursue his ambitious trade agenda.

That agenda includes two holdovers from the Clinton administration - creation of the world's largest free trade zone in the Western Hemisphere and successful completion of a new round of trade liberalization talks under the auspices of the World Trade Organization.

The administration got good news this week on the WTO negotiations when 142 countries reached a deal in Qatar to launch the new round of talks.

That success stood in marked contrast to the failure the Clinton team suffered in December 1999 when a WTO effort to launch the new round collapsed in a haze of tear gas as delegates could not resolve their differences and thousands of anti- globalization protesters turned Seattle into a riot zone.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick told reporters Friday night he believed the success in Doha, Qatar, would help gain the votes Bush needs for negotiating authority to complete an agreement and send it to Congress for an expedited up-or-down vote without amendments.

Zoellick said the Qatar agreement offered promising opportunities for American manufacturers, farmers and service companies to tear down global barriers and boost exports.

The negotiations are supposed to be completed by Jan. 1, 2005.

"The negotiating mandates in agriculture, manufacturing and services are all extremely good," Zoellick said.

Lawmakers now will have something concrete to see when deciding how to vote on the trade-negotiating legislation, formerly called fast track but renamed trade promotion authority.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat, complained in a speech on the Senate floor last week that Zoellick had exceeded his negotiating mandate in the Doha talks.

"The Constitution assigns the responsibility for international trade to the Congress," Baucus said. "Yet the administration is now acting without a mandate from Congress."

Opponents also said the administration-backed bill, sponsored by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas, a California Republican., failed to adequately address their concerns over labor and environmental standards.