Thread: White House Looks to Wrap New Trade Deals

http://www.washingtonpost.com

White House Looks to Wrap New Trade Deals

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER
The Associated Press
Thursday, September 8, 2005; 6:42 PM

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration wants to wrap up new free trade agreements with Panama and Oman this year and complete deals with Thailand, a group of South American countries and the United Arab Emirates early next year.

U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman said Thursday those negotiations will be taking place at the same time he tries to get global trade talks among 148 nations back on track.


"We have a very ambitious trade agenda," Portman said during an interview with reporters in which he outlined trade goals.

Portman said the administration hoped to complete free trade talks this year with Panama and Oman and complete negotiations with Thailand and the Andean nations of South America next year as well as complete a free trade deal with the United Arab Emirates.

In addition, Portman said the administration hoped to make decisions by the end of this year on whether to launch new free trade talks with South Korea, Egypt, Malaysia and Switzerland, all countries which have requested negotiations with the United States.

Before the Bush administration took office, the United States only had free trade agreements in effect with three nations _ Canada, Mexico and Israel. Bush, however, has pushed to get congressional approval of deals with Jordan, Chile, Singapore, Morocco and Australia.

And in a two-vote House victory this summer, Bush won approval of the Central American Free Trade Agreement eliminating barriers with Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic.

Portman conceded that the CAFTA vote was close and had it failed, the administration's entire trade agenda would have been in jeopardy.

"If CAFTA had gone the other way, we would have been in a very difficult political position," he said. "CAFTA was not a landslide, but we did win. It gives us a bit of wind at our backs."

In case I havent said it enough, WE NEED TO STOP THE FTAA. Fight it with as much as you can because if it passes, say goodbye to America.