President Pushes for Colombia Free Trade Agreement

From Congress Daily:

The president is described as passionate, convinced the FTA is necessary to buck up a beleaguered democratic ally and provide a bulwark against encroaching totalitarianism in South America. “I can’t underscore how very much he believes in this,” said one senior administration official. “He’ll keep bringing it up over and over and over again.” Pelosi has said she will not put the legislation to a vote until there is an agreement on a trade adjustment assistance program and other measures to help working families. But top Bush aides say they do not know exactly what Pelosi wants and suspect her demands may be a cover for bowing to union pressure to quash the FTA. “Normally to negotiate with someone you have to know what it is they want,” said one senior U.S. trade official.

Sources say that the hope is to strike a deal on the Colombia Free Trade Agreement and pass it before the election. That’s a complete pipe dream, however. Trade votes are anathema to the Democratic base, and there’s no way they will allow the deal to be revived before the election now that it is mostly dead. There may be a chance of passing the agreement in the lame duck session after the November election, but that can only happen if John McCain wins; if a Democrat is the victor than the unions will insist on reframing the deal completely. And as we have seen, it’s also possible that if there’s no deal, the Colombia FTA will simply become a campaign issue. The question then becomes whether Democrats believe the Latino vote is threatened enough to warrant action.

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