[Ip-health] Wall Street Journal: Bush, Congress Agree On Trade Standards

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

<SNIP>

The agreement -- announced last night by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi,
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and other top officials and lawmakers
-- clears a hurdle to the passage of some small bilateral trade deals.
And it could ultimately smooth the way for broader trade measures such
as renewing President Bush's soon-to-expire authority to negotiate
trade deals without threat of congressional amendments, as well as a
new global trade agreement now being negotiated in the Doha Round of
world trade talks.

Lawmakers said the agreement would help provide broad bipartisan
support in Congress for pending agreements with Peru and Panama. But,
they said other trade measures, including pacts with Colombia and South
Korea, involve other issues that haven't been worked out.

In addition to including new labor and environmental principles, the
deal calls for expanded access for developing countries to generic
drugs, a priority for Democrats, who say efforts by brand-name drug
makers to protect their markets have put many medicines out of reach in
poor countries.

"This is a major breakthrough in what we've been fighting for ... to be
sure that globalization opens up for many more people, including
workers," said Rep. Sander Levin (D., Mich.), one of the negotiators.
Before Democrats were in a position to influence the debate, he said,
"I think Republicans were resisting a necessary trend to spread the
benefits of trade."

<SNIP>

The drug industry trade group, Pharmaceutical Research and
Manufacturers of America, declined to comment until it has reviewed the
final agreement. But objections from the powerful lobby -- which
succeeded this week in killing a proposal to ease rules for
pharmaceutical imports -- would complicate prospects for passage.

U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab said, even with the changes
related to generic drugs, pending trade agreements would improve
protections for intellectual property abroad, including brand-name
pharmaceuticals. "This is a compromise," she said. The drug provisions
apply to the pacts with Panama, Peru and Colombia, but not Korea, she
said.


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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117883999169399217.html

Bush, Congress Agree
On Trade Standards
By SARAH LUECK, JOHN D. MCKINNON and GREG HITT
May 11, 2007; Page A2

WASHINGTON -- After months of standstill, the White House and
congressional Democrats agreed to strengthen labor and environmental
standards in free-trade pacts, signaling a new bipartisan consensus
aimed at shoring up crumbling U.S. public support for economic
globalization.

The agreement -- announced last night by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi,
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and other top officials and lawmakers
-- clears a hurdle to the passage of some small bilateral trade deals.
And it could ultimately smooth the way for broader trade measures such
as renewing President Bush's soon-to-expire authority to negotiate
trade deals without threat of congressional amendments, as well as a
new global trade agreement now being negotiated in the Doha Round of
world trade talks.

Lawmakers said the agreement would help provide broad bipartisan
support in Congress for pending agreements with Peru and Panama. But,
they said other trade measures, including pacts with Colombia and South
Korea, involve other issues that haven't been worked out.

In addition to including new labor and environmental principles, the
deal calls for expanded access for developing countries to generic
drugs, a priority for Democrats, who say efforts by brand-name drug
makers to protect their markets have put many medicines out of reach in
poor countries.

"This is a major breakthrough in what we've been fighting for ... to be
sure that globalization opens up for many more people, including
workers," said Rep. Sander Levin (D., Mich.), one of the negotiators.
Before Democrats were in a position to influence the debate, he said,
"I think Republicans were resisting a necessary trend to spread the
benefits of trade."

The deal also shows that, for all the squabbling between the White
House and Capitol Hill on Iraq, the two sides have continued to find
ways to work together on other issues. Beyond trade, administration and
congressional leaders are feverishly negotiating to try and reach an
agreement this month on immigration overhaul.

While the trade pact has the solid backing of congressional leaders,
any specific trade legislation could still face strong opposition among
rank-and-file lawmakers and labor groups.

The drug industry trade group, Pharmaceutical Research and
Manufacturers of America, declined to comment until it has reviewed the
final agreement. But objections from the powerful lobby -- which
succeeded this week in killing a proposal to ease rules for
pharmaceutical imports -- would complicate prospects for passage.

U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab said, even with the changes
related to generic drugs, pending trade agreements would improve
protections for intellectual property abroad, including brand-name
pharmaceuticals. "This is a compromise," she said. The drug provisions
apply to the pacts with Panama, Peru and Colombia, but not Korea, she
said.

The push for free trade has been complicated by the rising U.S. trade
deficit. Yesterday, the Commerce Department said the country's overall
deficit surged to a six-month high of $63.9 billion in March, party
because of a jump in oil imports. The report is causing economists to
scale back estimates of first-quarter growth -- and is fueling new
criticism from Democratic lawmakers of the Bush administration's trade
policies.

The deal would require that core international labor standards be
incorporated into trade pacts and would enforce those commitments with
the same sanctions used to back up business-backed priorities. In the
case of Peru, the changes will be accomplished through amendments that
won't require already agreed-to texts to be reopened, a congressional
official said. The Panama deal, though largely completed, was left open
to accommodate any compromise that might be struck by the White House
and Democratic leaders.

The agreement isn't meant to open U.S. laws to challenge under the
strengthened labor commitments. But it doesn't include a specific
assurance against that, according to the congressional official.

--John McCary contributed to this article.

---------------------------------
Thiru Balasubramaniam
Geneva Representative
Knowledge Ecology International (KEI)
voice +41.22.791.6727
fax +41.22.723.2988
mobile +41 76 508 0997
thiru@keionline.org