[Ip-health] Reuters: Doubtful U.S. will pass trade deals

[Sarah Rimmington]

FYI it looks even less likely that the administration will get deals for
Colombia, Panama and S.Korea through before Bush leaves office.

Doubtful U.S. will pass trade deals: lawmaker
Tue Jan 29, 2008 7:09pm EST

By Doug Palmer

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Congress is unlikely to pass a free trade deal
with Colombia this year, or two other pending agreements with South
Korea and Panama, despite White House pressure, a senior U.S. lawmaker
said on Tuesday.

"Now, whether or not Colombia or any of the other trade agreements will
pass this year I think is -- I would say doubtful," House of
Representatives Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told reporters.

The Colombia agreement faces problems because of violence in that
country against trade unionists, while the South Korean pact needs to be
renegotiated to ensure U.S. auto exports receive "fair treatment," the
Maryland Democrat said.

The Panama agreement is in trouble because last year that country's
National Assembly elected as its president a lawmaker wanted in the
United States on charges of killing a U.S. soldier in 1992, he added.

Hoyer's comments came one day after President George W. Bush appealed to
Congress to pass the three free trade agreements, beginning with Colombia.

U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab kept up the pressure on Tuesday
by urging Democrats opposed to the Colombia deal to say exactly what the
country needs to do to win their support.

Many lawmakers who complain Colombia has not done enough to stop murders
of trade unionists or put their killers in prison "have been reluctant
or unable to define" what other steps they want Colombia to take, Schwab
said.

"You can set goal posts that are realistic, but tough. You can set goal
posts that are so extreme as to make it utterly impossible to meet them.
And you can set goal posts and keep moving them," Schwab told reporters.

'A VERY BAD RECORD'

Schwab said she was confident congressional leaders would schedule a
vote on the Colombian agreement, but Hoyer said there were no plans to
do that right now.

"The president has the authority to send it down here and the clock will
start to run on that. But I don't know that that's useful unless he
believes that's going to pass," Hoyer said. "Certainly one of the basic
workers' rights is the right to stay alive if you're a union organizer,
and Colombia has had a very bad record on that."

The Colombia pact is covered by White House trade promotion authority,
which requires Congress to approve or reject an agreement within 90 days
of receiving it.

The largest U.S. labor group, the AFL-CIO labor federation, is bitterly
opposed to the trade agreement with Colombia, which it says remains the
deadliest country in the world for trade unionists despite recent progress.

Last June, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other senior Democrats said
they could not back the agreement until there was "concrete evidence of
sustained results on the ground in Colombia" in reducing murders of
trade unionists, bringing their killers to justice and investigating the
role of Colombian paramilitary forces in the violence.

The Bush administration says a 76-percent drop in kidnappings, a
40-percent drop in homicides and a 61-percent drop in "terrorist
attacks" since President Alvaro Uribe took office in 2002 is evidence
that Colombia has made progress.

Colombia has also set up a special labor unit within its Prosecutor
General's office to investigate murders and other crimes against trade
unionists.

Violence in Colombia has been fueled by a four-decade-old guerrilla war.
The United States has provided about $5.5 billion in aid to the Andean
country over the last seven years to fight the illegal drug trade and
defeat the rebels.

(Additional reporting by Richard Cowan; editing by Xavier Briand)

--
Sarah Rimmington
Attorney
Essential Action, Access to Medicines Project
Washington, DC
Tel: (202) 387-8030
Cell: (202) 422-2687
www.essentialaction.org/access/