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Trade authority { August 7 2002 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/07/international/07PREX.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/07/international/07PREX.html
August 7, 2002
Bush Signs Trade Bill, Restoring Broad Presidential Authority
By ELISABETH BUMILLER
CRAWFORD, Tex., Aug. 6 — President Bush signed a bill this morning in Washington giving him the authority to negotiate trade deals with foreign countries without interference from Congress, then left less than 20 minutes later for a monthlong "working vacation" at his 1,600-acre ranch here.
The legislation and a recently signed corporate antifraud bill are two accomplishments Mr. Bush will be able to cite when asked what his administration has done to try to help the stalling economy.
Trade promotion authority, once called fast track, was first given to the presidency in 1974. It lapsed in 1994, and Congress did not re-enact it for President Bill Clinton. Its renewal is a major legislative victory for Mr. Bush, whose aides worked for months to push the bill through the House and the Senate, which approved it only five days ago.
"Five presidents before me had this advantage," Mr. Bush said at a White House signing ceremony this morning. "But since the authority lapsed in 1994, other nations and regions have pursued trade agreements while America's trade policy was stuck in park."
Under the new legislation, the president can make trade deals through 2007 that Congress can approve or reject but not change. Mr. Bush said he would begin using his authority immediately to accelerate long-stalled trade talks and bolster the economy.
"Starting now, America is back at the bargaining table in full force," Mr. Bush said. "I will use trade promotion authority aggressively to create more good jobs for American workers, more exports for American farmers and higher living standards for American families."
Supporters of the bill, mostly Republicans, said the legislation would move the White House from the sidelines to a central position in making trade deals that would enable the United States to better compete with other countries.
The opponents of the bill, mostly Democrats, said they worried about the impact of liberalized trade on American textile and other manufacturing workers, who might be hurt by competition from cheaper imported products or by companies that move their plants overseas to take advantage of cheaper foreign labor. Only when House and Senate negotiators agreed to include subsidized health insurance and job-training benefits for workers who lose their jobs to foreign competition did some Democrats finally agree to vote for the bill.
Mr. Bush said his administration would move quickly to make trade agreements with Chile, Singapore and Morocco. In addition, he said, the United States will negotiate a Free Trade Area of the Americas, a 34-nation plan first proposed in 1994 to integrate most of the economies of North and South America into a single free-trade bloc, similar in concept to the Nafta agreement with Mexico and Canada.
The president also praised Congress for renewing the Andean Trade Preferences Act, which for a decade lowered tariffs for 6,000 products from Peru, Colombia, Bolivia and Ecuador. The pact expired in December 2001.
Earlier today, Mr. Bush said that the White House would hold a conference at George Washington University on missing, exploited and runaway children on Sept. 24 and that the Department of Justice would release a booklet to schools throughout the country on how parents can safeguard their children.
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