White House and Democrats clash over trade pact
New York Times
White House and Democrats clash over trade pact
By Steven R. Weisman
9 April 2008
WASHINGTON, April 9 - The dispute between the White House and Democrats on the economy escalated sharply Wednesday over a surprise move by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to scrap the House’s rules and hold hostage a trade accord sought by the administration until President Bush agrees to more economic relief for Americans.
Ms. Pelosi’s action, which appeared to stun the White House, came just two days after Mr. Bush attempted to gain the upper hand by sending the bill to Congress with the understanding that current trade laws required a vote this year.
Hastily assembling at the White House, Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. and a group of other cabinet members denounced Ms. Pelosi’s action as threatening American relations with Colombia, encouraging anti-American forces in Latin America and jeopardizing the American economy.
But the Democrats stood firm, saying that they had beseeched the White House not to send the Colombia deal, which is opposed by labor and environmental groups, to Congress and set in motion the 90-day timetable requiring an up-or-down vote.
The timetable is called for under the so-called trade promotion authority granted the president by Congress.
Ms. Pelosi said she told the White House not to submit the deal because there were not enough votes to pass it. But the Bush administration has taken more than two dozen Democrats to Colombia in recent months and thinks that there are enough votes among them to make it possible to pass it if enough pressure is brought to bear.
What Democrats do not want, many of them say, is a vote that would force lawmakers to choose between the labor and working-class opponents of the measure, who say that trade has cost American jobs and led to wage stagnation, and the Wall Street and manufacturing interests that favor the deal.
Trade between the United States and Colombia totals only about $18 billion, a tiny portion of overall American trade, but it has become a gigantic symbol of the fault lines over the issue at a time when the American economy is sinking.
While Democrats blame trade deals for the downturn, Republicans note that exports are now the fastest-growing sector of the economy and that whatever the losses from trade, the gains outweigh them.
The issue has spilled over into the presidential campaign. Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama voted for a small trade deal with Peru earlier this year, buying into the argument that trade can benefit the economy.
But they both oppose the Colombia deal, in part because labor groups say that President Álvaro Uribe of Colombia has not done a sufficient job of cracking down on anti-labor violence committed by right-wing groups.
Unknown on Wednesday was whether the Democrats were ready to let the Colombia deal come to a vote if the White House makes concessions on domestic economic issues - whether help for homeowners, extending unemployment benefits, passing children’s health programs or other matters.
Officials on both sides said that despite the new bitterness and the pressures of a presidential campaign, it might be possible to make a deal to spring the Colombia deal loose. In part, that is because Democrats are in effect holding a gun to their own heads by delaying the trade agreement: they do not want to be blamed for undercutting Colombia at a time when the region is under pressure from President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela.
