Trade

July 12, 2005

I have never seen the US Congress as highly politicized as it is today. The atmosphere of acrimony affects everything. Even trade which should be more bipartisan has been drawn into the battle.

Passage ofthe Central America Free Trade Agreement should be an easy vote for most members of the House, but at this point the chance of passage is less than 50%. The Senate took the lead by passing the trade deal 54-45, but the House is a different story.

Democrat leadership in the House is twisting party arms to discourage support of the bill. In years past, Democrats have provided 20 or maybe 40 trade votes. President Clinton was a champion for Trade. This time around their leadership does not want to give President Bush a victory on trade. To me it isn't a Bush victory to open trade, but it is a victory for US farmers. We stand to gain about 1-1/2 billion dollars of sales. Only big sugar stands to accept a small increase in Central America sugar imports. Here we have all of agriculture beating the drums for more trade and sugar is the skunk at the party. Wait until we write the next farm bill. Sugar may not have too many friends.

The CAFTA vote is bigger than it looks. It can have major implications on where we go in the DOHA global trade negotiations. Ifwe can't even pass a little old trade bill with our poor neighbors, how much clout can we expect to exert in the WTO.

Just keep in mind that the next farm bill and the global trade negotiations are joined at the hip. They will move forward in lock step. And, that is how it should be.

Stay tuned.

Until next week, I am John Block from Washington.