[asia-apec 1706] Labour, environment in US-Chile, Singapore deals

[Aaron James]

excerpt:

Both Chile and Singapore have agreed to language, included
for the first time in the Jordan agreement, that commits
both countries to enforcing current laws on labor and
environmental protection, Barshefsky said.

January 18, 2001


 Barshefsky Passes on Advice

by MARTIN CRUTSINGER AP Economics Writer

> WASHINGTON (AP) -- Memo from the Clinton team to the new
> Bush administration on trade issues: Follow our successes
> but learn from our mistakes. Keep negotiating free trade
> deals with Chile, Singapore and the entire Western
> Hemisphere. Skip the bruising battle with Congress over
> fast-track authority.
>
> That was the advice President Clinton's top trade
> negotiator, Charlene Barshefsky, gave to the incoming
> administration Thursday in her last speech as U.S. trade
> representative.
>
> She predicted the Bush administration would push ahead with
> talks started by Clinton to create a free trade area
> covering the entire Western Hemisphere as well as striking
> separate agreements with Chile and Singapore.
>
> ''There is no question that the new administration will
> continue with the basic policy course we set,'' Barshefsky
> said in her speech to the Washington International Trade
> Association.
>
> She urged the new administration to set as a top priority
> the start of negotiations to get Russia into the World Trade
> Organization as a way of incorporating the former communist
> giant in the global economy.
>
> Clinton's efforts to move forward with an ambitious trade
> agenda were hindered by the fact that Congress refused to
> give him fast-track negotiating authority, which requires
> Congress to vote on any negotiated agreements on an
> expedited basis without amendments.
>
> Barshefsky said the administration's success in winning
> congressional approval to grant China permanent normal trade
> relations as part of its WTO membership bid was proof a
> president does not need fast-track authority to forge major
> trade agreements.
>
> She said the China vote showed the fallacy of the old
> argument that no country would negotiate with a president
> who did not have fast track, for fear that Congress would
> pick apart the deal.
>
> She said Congress was more likely to vote for a specific
> trade deal with demonstrable benefits for U.S. industries
> rather than a generic request for negotiating authority.
>
> ''I would really urge the new administration to think very
> hard about'' seeking fast-track legislation, Barshefsky
> said. ''It will require huge political capital and in my
> view is not necessary.''
>
> Barshefsky later told reporters she had discussed this
> subject with Robert Zoellick, nominated by Bush to be the
> new U.S. trade representative.
>
> In the closing weeks of the administration, Clinton directed
> the start of negotiations with both Chile and Singapore on
> free trade agreements, following up on the administration's
> success of negotiating a free trade deal with Jordan in
> October.
>
> Barshefsky told reporters that based on her discussions with
> Bush officials, she expected those talks will continue.
>
> Both Chile and Singapore have agreed to language, included
> for the first time in the Jordan agreement, that commits
> both countries to enforcing current laws on labor and
> environmental protection, Barshefsky said.
>
> Key Republicans in Congress have objected to having this
> language included in a trade deal. But Barshefsky said she
> believed it was a good compromise and countered criticism
> that removing trade barriers increases pressure on a country
> to stop enforcing certain laws for competitive reasons.
>
> The Clinton administration is leaving much unfinished trade
> matters, including fights with the European Union over
> barriers it has erected against the sale of American beef
> treated with growth hormones and against bananas produced on
> plantations owned by U.S. companies.
>
> Barshefsky's chief agriculture negotiator, Greg Frazier, was
> involved in discussions with EU officials on Thursday in an
> 11th-hour effort to resolve the conflicts. But Barshefsky
> said the two disputes were likely to carry over to the next
> administration.
>
> Barshefsky said the effort to launch a new round of global
> trade talks, which collapsed in Seattle in 1999, could
> succeed this year, but only if the 15-nation EU agreed to
> put agricultural barriers on the negotiating agenda.
>
> ^------=
>
> On the Net:
>
> U.S. Trade Representative: <http://www.ustr.gov/>

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Aaron James
204-339 East 7th Avenue
Vancouver, British Columbia
V5L 1M9
Phone: 
aaronj at interchange.ubc.ca
http://members.tripod.com/aaronjeromewestjames/
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