KEY SENATORS SEEK CHANGES IN ANTI-DRUG CERTIFICATION

As the State Department issued the annual certification of drug-fighting
efforts by foreign countries, key senators from both parties yesterday
stepped up their campaign to overhaul the process, arguing it is obsolete
and self-defeating.

Senators said at a hearing before the Foreign Relations Committee that at
least four bills have been introduced in the Senate. One would streamline
the yearly review and another would suspend it for two years while the
United States crafts a new multinational approach to fight drug trafficking.

Under a 15-year-old law, the president must certify each March that major
drug-producing and drug-transit countries are working with the United
States in combating narcotics. Those countries deemed not to be cooperating
vigorously enough can lose most forms of U.S. assistance unless they
receive a waiver because of their importance to the U.S. national interest.

The list released yesterday gives failing grades to four countries: Burma,
Cambodia, Haiti and Afghanistan, which administration officials singled out
for a 25 percent increase in opium production over the last year.
Afghanistan accounts for 72 percent of the global supply, they said.

Cambodia and Haiti were given waivers out of concern that severing American
aid could undercut efforts to foster democracy and promote stability, State
Department officials said. Two other countries that failed to be certified
last year, Nigeria and Paraguay, were upgraded after the administration
concluded they had redoubled drug-fighting efforts.

The annual report card was issued at a time when Secretary of State Colin
L. Powell is suggesting that the administration should rethink its
certification policy. At his Senate confirmation hearing in January, Powell
said he would propose a suspension of the process to see if a better
approach can be developed.

The reasons that Congress is concerned about the process were laid out
yesterday by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tex.), who said, "The drug
certification ritual results in resentment and is counterproductive."

The process has "worked in fits and starts" over the years, often producing
cooperation where it had not existed before, said Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr.
(D-Del.), ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and
co-author of the 15-year-old drug certification program.

But, with new governments in such countries as Mexico and Colombia and with
their presidents "putting their lives on the line" to fight drugs, "this is
a different world" now, Biden added. He supports a two-year suspension.

One of the main proposals, sponsored by Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa),
who has been a staunch backer of the current program, would replace it with
a simple grant of authority to the president to impose sanctions on
countries that fail to meet certain international standards for
cooperation. Congress could add countries to the list.

Another leading proposal, sponsored by Sens. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.),
John McCain (R-Ariz.) and others, would provide for a two-year suspension
of the certification process while the United States and other countries
work on what Dodd describes as an "enhanced multilateral strategy" toward
drug control.

Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Phil Gramm (R-Tex.) are cosponsoring a
proposal that would exempt from the certification prgram countries with
bilateral anti-drug agreements with the United States.

In his testimony before the committee, R. Rand Beers, assistant secretary
of state for international narcotics and law enforcement affairs, defended
the certification process but indicated the administration is open to
alternatives.

"We believe that it is appropriate to consider how the current process
might be altered to better reflect the changes in the international
situation that have occurred since narcotics certification was first
introduced," Beers said.

He added that if the process is suspended, the president must retain the
power to penalize countries that do not adequately cooperate. Nor, he said,
should countries or regions be exempted from review.

President Vicente Fox of Mexico in particular has criticized the process.
During President Bush's visit to Mexico last month, he assured Fox that he
would vouch for Mexico's effort to "root out the drug lords."

In releasing the annual narcotics report, administration officials were
effusive in describing Mexico's performance. Mexico "in the course of last
year has done some extraordinary, record-setting, I'd almost want to
classify it as world-class in both opium-production and
marijuana-production eradication programs," said Robert E. Brown Jr., of
the Office of National Drug Control Policy. He praised both the efforts of
the Mexican military and the number of drug seizures made in the last year.

But Brown added that Mexican efforts to crack down on trafficking continue
to face challenges from "corruption and powerful criminal groups."