Drug certification questioned by key U.S. officials

By Martin Langfield

ATLANTA, Ga., April 29 (Reuter) Key figures in the U.S. government
believe the controversial U.S. practice of "certifying" the
antinarcotics efforts of other nations is counterproductive and should be
drastically overhauled, former President Jimmy Carter said on Tuesday.

U.S. drug czar Gen. Barry McCaffrey, House of Representatives Speaker Newt
Gingrich and Chairman of the House International Relations Committee Benjamin
Gilman all agreed that the process needed changing, Carter said.

He was speaking at the end of a twoday meeting of current and former U.S.,
Latin American and Caribbean leaders.

"We had the key people at our conference who are concerned with this," Carter
told a news conference. "There is a general consensus now, that didn't exist
a short time ago, that this certification law should be changed
dramatically."

"I think it is very likely now, with the support of the Speaker, that there
will be a modification in the basic laws."

McCaffrey, Gingrich and Gilman all met with Carter, former President Gerald
Ford and a group of Latin American and Caribbean leaders during the
conference, aimed at hammering out a joint agenda for the countries of the
Western hemisphere in the next century.

Gingrich on Monday night called the process "offensive"

while McCaffrey said a more multilateral approach would be more effective.

Latin American nations see the certification process, whereby Washington
annually evaluates the antinarcotics efforts of other nations, as insulting
and arrogant.

"Great umbrage has been taken," said Jamaica's Prime Minister P.J. Patterson.

The conference called for a more collaborative effort at fighting
drugtrafficking in the Americas.

U.S. Vice President Al Gore, in remarks at a closing dinner Tuesday, did not
directly address the issue.

"I want to reaffirm our determination that drug traffickers will not prevail
and will be defeated," he said in his only reference to antinarcotics
policy.

He thanked the conference though for "very helpful" policy suggestions,
especially on expanding free trade.

President Bill Clinton begins his first trip to Latin America by visiting
Mexico for three days from May 5. He will also travel to Central America and
the Caribbean.

Gore said Clinton's priorities would include bolstering "free minds and free
markets" in the region.

Carter also said that Republican leader Gingrich had given his commitment,
during talks at the forum, to support "fast track" legislation on extending
free trade throughout the hemisphere that would take into account the
reservations of labor and green groups.

Gingrich said he would "support rapid passage of fasttrack negotiating
authority which included provisions for protecting labor rights and the
environment, providing they are trade related", according to the
conference's closing statement.

Such provisions would make passage of such a law far easier and help meet the
goal, first established at the 1994 Miami Summit of the Americas, of creating
a free trade area from the Yukon to Tierra del Fuego by 2005, Carter said.

Gore said the Clinton administration backed "fast track"

authorisation, which would allow the U.S. government to negotiate more free
trade accords and submit them to Congress for a straight yesorno vote,
rather than allowing debate on provisions for individual industries or
sectors.

"It is high time," he said, adding that the conference's discussion with
Gingrich could help achieve that goal.

Regional leaders and officials at the conference had criticized the United
States for dragging its feet on expanding free trade.