US FTA gets a new champion: Senator John McCain
National Business Review, New Zealand
US FTA gets a new champion: Senator John McCain
12 January 2006
Returning through Christchurch as part of a Congressional delegation visiting American operations in Antarctica, US Senator John McCain, a Republican representing Arizona and a leading conservative centrist, had positive things to say about the possibility of a free trade agreement between the US and New Zealand.
The senator, who ran unsuccessfully against George W Bush for the Republican presidential nomination in the 2000 election, met with Trade Minister Phil Goff and Foreign Minister Winston Peters in Christchurch, where the pair pitched New Zealand’s case for a free trade agreement.
In Senator McCain’s delegation at the informal luncheon meeting were fellow Republican senators Susan Collins (Maine) and John Sununu (New Hampshire).
International trade is not normally part of Senator McCain’s brief — he is currently the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, and serves on the Armed Services, and Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committees. brief — but as a leading voice (and prospective 2008 presidential candidate) in the Republican party, he makes a potent ally.
Senator Collins — as the Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which has jurisdiction over the Department of Homeland Security and is the Senate’s chief oversight committee — is also well-placed within the senate’s hierarchy, but without particular responsibility for foreign trade.
On the other hand, Senator Sununu’s key assignments include the Commerce Committee, the Banking and Housing Committee, and the Foreign Relations Committee. Although still a very junior senator, only a few years into his first term of office after being elected in 2002, Senator Sununu also serves on the Joint Economic Committee and is Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations Subcommittee on International Operations and Terrorism, almost all pulpits with some potential influence on relations between the two countries.
But whatever Senators Sununu and Collins may think about a free trade agreement, it was Senator McCain who framed the response to the visit, saying the difference of opinion between New Zealand and the US over the nuclear free issue should not stand in the way of free trade between the two countries.
Gaining a free trade agreement is high on the government’s official agenda, but it is central to Mr Peters, who said he was "heartened by the strong support for a trade deal" shown by Senator McCain.
"It’s very worthwhile for New Zealand, particularly in the sense of the level of support that someone as high as Senator McCain can give... to the improved relations we seek to ensure occur between out two countries," Mr Peters told reporters.
"But there’s a long way to go, there’s a lot of people to be convinced... there are lots of issues for New Zealand to get past," he said.
Mr Goff said Mr McCain’s support for a free trade agreement was "quite explicit," according to press reports.
"The Cold War is over. We had a disagreement and it remains a disagreement, but it shouldn’t affect issues of mutual interest such as free trade, and it won’t," Senator McCain told reporters, according to the Associated Press.
"I would like very much to see a free trade agreement between the United States and New Zealand — I think it’d be very beneficial to both countries," he said.
Mr McCain had signed a letter to President Bush in 2003 backing the negotiation of such an agreement and continued to be a "strong advocate" for the deal, Mr Goff said.
Despite that historical support for an FTA, Mr Peters said that the senator "wasn’t aware that we have been engaged in so many parts of the world with the United States, or how significantly our past history has been bound with theirs and the level of sacrifice this country has made.
"I think the Americans need to realize sometimes that this country has paid more than its dues," he told the Associated Press.
The importance of Senator McCain’s support is heightened by the fact that he may win the next presidential election in the US — if he can win the Republican nomination first.
A year ago, it appeared to many in the US that winning the nomination might be the more difficult of those two tasks for the outspoken, iconoclastic, war hero.
That’s changing.
A political action group, Straight Talk America, is promoting the senator as he tours the US in what looks very much like pre-campaign mode, touching base with the political center — and the more conservative elements of the right — as he goes, gathering support.
Beginning in late summer and continuing to the present, the informal, blogish right sees him neck and neck for the Republican nominaton with another American hero, former New York City Mayor (and polling front-runner, by a whisker) Rudy Giuliani.
Once the 2008 presidential race gets fully underway next year, there’s little chance of advancing even a mildly controversial free trade agreement — but having a committed advocate like Senator McCain in the mix could eventually tip the balance.
