Politics And Policy

BUSH LAMENTS OPPOSITION IN SENATE TO TRADE PACT FOR ANDEAN NATIONS

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador -- President Bush's campaign to expand trade
among Western Hemisphere nations is the latest administration proposal
caught in the crossfire of his battle with Democrats.

Mr. Bush, concluding a four-day visit to Mexico, Peru and El Salvador,
called for negotiating a U.S. free-trade pact with Central America as part
of a broader effort to improve economic ties with countries in this
hemisphere. He dismissed as "petty politics" accusations by Democrats that
he used the election-year trip to pander to Hispanic voters.

It would take years to complete such an agreement; in the meantime, Mr.
Bush asked Congress to renew the Andean Trade Preferences Act, which
expired in December, and, in an unanticipated development, offered to
consider a broader unilateral trade pact proposed by Peruvian President
Alejandro Toledo's government. He will send Commerce Secretary Donald Evans
on a trade mission to Peru later this year.

Mr. Bush said trade will "reinforce the region's progress toward political,
economic and social reform." But his visit was tarnished somewhat by his
inability to come to the Andean region with an extension of the 1991 trade
program with Peru, Columbia, Bolivia and Ecuador in hand. The president
also wanted so-called fast-track trade authority from Congress before
coming to Latin America. That would empower him to strike deals -- such as
the one requested by Mr. Toledo -- that Congress could approve or reject
but not amend.

But Senate Democrats, many upset with the impact U.S. businesses have felt
from previous trade deals such as the North American Free Trade Agreement,
have blocked action on both measures after the House approved them.

During his trip, Mr. Bush and his aides brought their criticism of Senate
Democrats to the international stage, blaming them for blocking policies
important to Latin American leaders. The Andean trade pact, he complained
at a news conference in Lima, Peru, is "stuck in the Senate." As the 2002
elections draw closer, it will become increasingly difficult to enact the
president's trade agenda, White House aides fear.

Secretary of State Colin Powell said failure to expand trade could
undermine the U.S. war on terrorism. Trade with Latin American countries
"will take them out of poverty and remove the safe haven that terrorists
need," Mr. Powell said.

To be sure, Mr. Bush focused on more than trade during his trip. His
proposal to raise U.S. foreign aid by $10 billion during the next four
years was well received by world leaders gathered in Monterrey, Mexico, for
a United Nations meeting on development aid. Mr. Bush said the U.S. would
triple aid to Peru, to nearly $200 million, some of which will be used to
combat the region's drug trade.

Mr. Bush is growing increasingly frustrated with Senate Democrats over
their handling of his proposals and personnel appointments. In recent
weeks, he has curtailed conversations and meetings with Senate Majority
Leader Tom Daschle (D., S.D.) and quit holding weekly breakfast meetings
with the top congressional leaders from both parties.

Mr. Bush has intensified his own efforts to help the GOP win back control
of the Senate and rid himself of the Democratic majority. This week, he
will travel to Georgia and South Carolina to raise money for Republican
Senate candidates there.

In the Democrats' weekend radio address, Los Angeles mayoral candidate and
California Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa accused Mr. Bush of using
his trip to pander to Hispanic voters by touting his plan to allow many
illegal Mexican and other immigrants to stay in the U.S. while awaiting
approval of residence-visa applications. While split over the plan's
merits, Republicans concede it will help attract more Hispanic voters to
the GOP.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Mr. Villaraigosa's comments on
behalf of the Democratic Party were "an unfortunate note of partisanship in
the middle of a longstanding tradition of bipartisanship when the president
travels abroad."