NAFTA Review Begins Battle on Trade

[MDOLAN <mdolan@citizen.org>]

  >
  > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
  >
  >                   NAFTA Review Begins Battle on Trade
  >
  > (September 11, 7:40 pm)
  >
  > WASHINGTON (AP) - While critics called the North American Free Trade
  > Agreement an unmitigated failure, the Clinton administration defended
  > it Thursday as producing modest but positive benefits for the U.S.
  > economy.
  >
  > "NAFTA was a strategic step forward for U.S. trade policy," Deputy
  > U.S. Trade Representative Jeff Lang told the House Ways and Means
  > Committee. "Only 3 1/2 years into its 15 year implementation process,
  > it has already yielded positive benefits for U.S. citizens."
  >
  > The committee spent Thursday reviewing a three-year NAFTA report card
  > produced by the administration in July. That report concluded that the
  > trade agreement with Mexico and Canada has produced modest positive
  > benefits in U.S. jobs, wages, exports and the economy's overall
  > performance.
  >
  > But opponents of the trade accord called the administration's
  > assessment a whitewash that ignored soaring trade deficits and other
  > problems stemming from increased trade with Mexico.
  >
  > Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, said the $100 billion in trade deficits
  > with Mexico and Canada since the treaty went into effect on Jan. 1,
  > 1994, translates into a loss of 300,000 American jobs.
  >
  > "We now have 44 months of evidence about the effects of NAFTA-style
  > trade agreements - a menacing and growing trade deficit, problems
  > along the border, questions about truck safety and food safety and
  > drugs," she said.
  >
  > Lang and other NAFTA supporters blamed the rising deficits on
  > unrelated factors. Without NAFTA, they said, the U.S. trade balance
  > would have been even worse with Mexico in the aftermath of its 1994
  > peso crisis.
  >
  > The hearing was the opening skirmish in what promises to be one of the
  > biggest congressional fights this fall: whether to give President
  > Clinton the virtually unfettered authority he wants to expand NAFTA to
  > other countries in Latin America and negotiate similar agreements with
  > major Asian trading partners.
  >
  > Clinton kicked off that effort Wednesday, inviting business executives
  > and congressional supporters to the White House East Room. However,
  > the administration still has not resolved a fight over how to deal
  > with labor and environmental issues. Administration officials said
  > they hoped to have a bill ready to present to Congress by next
  > Tuesday.
  >
  > The two top Democrats in the House, Reps. Dick Gephardt of Missouri
  > and David Bonior of Michigan, said again Thursday they will oppose any
  > "fast track" measure put forward by Clinton if it does not contain
  > enforceable protections of worker rights and the environment.
  >
  > "The Clinton administration is moving us in the wrong direction,"
  > Bonior said at a teach-in for NAFTA opponents. "They are dragging us
  > backward toward 19th century conditions: lower wages, weaker consumer
  > protection and a dirtier environment."
  >
  > AFL-CIO President John Sweeney told the House trade subcommittee that
  > labor would mount a vigorous grassroots campaign to defeat any
  > fast-track legislation that "does not require enforceable labor and
  > environmental standards right in the core of any new trade
  > agreements."
  >
  > But the administration is leaning toward agreeing to demands by a
  > Republican majority in Congress that any labor and environmental
  > conditions apply only to specified products or services in trade.
  >
  > Under the "fast track" authority that Clinton seeks, Congress could
  > not change any of the provisions in a trade accord negotiated by the
  > president and his aides with other countries. Lawmakers, however, will
  > still have the power to reject such pacts outright.
  >
  ***** NOTES from MDOLAN (MDOLAN @ CITIZEN) at 9/12/97 9:22 AM
  
  
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   /s/ Mike Dolan, Field Director, Global Trade Watch, Public Citizen
  
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