New York Times
May 7, 2001
By David Stout

WASHINGTON, May 7 -- Renewing his quest for wider trade-negotiating authority from Congress, President Bush said today that open trade was not just an avenue for greater prosperity but was "a moral imperative" for the United States.

"Free trade agreements are being negotiated all over the world," Mr. Bush told the Washington conference of the Council of the Americas, held at the State Department. "And we're not a party to them. And this has got to change."

Mr. Bush pledged that if he were given the trade-negotiating authority he wants, he would use it "to build freedom in the world, progress in our hemisphere and enduring prosperity in the United States."

This week, Mr. Bush plans to formally ask Congress to give him the authority to negotiate trade deals that could be voted up or down by lawmakers without changes. Chief executives from Gerald Ford to Bill Clinton had such "fast-track" authority, but it lapsed during the Clinton administration.

"I'm counting on the council's help to bring sanity to the United States Congress," Mr. Bush told an audience of some 300 business leaders, ambassadors and government officials.

A group of 61 senators sent Mr. Bush a letter today warning him that they would strongly oppose any new trade agreement that would restrict America's ability to use its laws to protect American companies against unfair trade practices of other nations.

Mr. Bush bemoaned what he called "a new form of protectionism" that has crept into American political thinking. "When we promote open trade, we're promoting political freedom," he said.

The President sounded a theme that has become familiar: American commercial exports are linked to the export of American values of freedom and human rights.

"Americans want to live on a cleaner planet," Mr. Bush said. "We want labor standards upheld and children protected from exploitation.

Americans want human rights and individual freedom to advance. Open trade advances those American values, those universal values."

The "new protectionism," Mr. Bush asserted, "talks of workers while it opposes a major source of new jobs. It talks of the environment while opposing the wealth-creating policies that will pay for clean air and water in developing nations. It talks of the disadvantaged even as it offers ideas that would keep many of the poor in poverty."

"Open trade is not just an economic opportunity, it is a moral imperative," he said. "Trade creates jobs for the unemployed.

When we negotiate for open markets, we're providing new hope for the world's poor. And when we promote open trade, we are promoting political freedom."

"Look at our friends -- Mexico and the political reforms there," Mr. Bush went on. "Look at Taiwan. Look at South Korea. And someday soon, I hope that an American president will end that list by adding, 'Look at China.' I believe in open trade with China because I believe that freedom can triumph in China."

"My administration wants to work with Congress and to listen to what the members have to say," Mr. Bush said. "We've been especially impressed by the fresh, new thinking of many members about how to advance environmental and worker protection concerns in ways that open trade rather than closing trade."