Pubdate: Tue, 23 Apr 2002
Source: Associated Press (Wire)
Copyright: 2002 Associated Press
Author: Jim Abrams, Associated Press Writer

LAWMAKERS PUSH ANDEAN TRADE PACT

WASHINGTON -- The head of the White House anti-drug office joined lawmakers 
Tuesday in urging Congress to save a trade policy aimed at helping Colombia 
and other South American countries reduce their reliance on cocaine 
production and trafficking.

"The time to act is now, the urgency is real," said Sen. Bob Graham, 
sponsor of legislation to extend the Andean Trade Preference Act that since 
1991 has offered low tariffs for selected products from Colombia, Bolivia, 
Ecuador and Peru.

The act expired last December, and a Bush administration deferral of higher 
duties runs out on May 16. The high tariffs that would be reimposed after 
that could be crippling to Colombia's fresh-cut flower industry, which has 
created 150,000 new jobs in that country since 1991, and Peru's asparagus 
business, the source of 40,000 new jobs since 1991.

"These people are going to get hammered if Congress doesn't act," U.S. 
Trade Representative Robert Zoellick said Monday of Colombian flower 
growers, who send 85 percent of their exports to the United States.

"This is a bill that works," John Walters, director of the Office of 
National Drug Control Policy, said at a Senate news conference Tuesday. 
"It's a support for the development of democracy as well as drug control."

"Let there be no doubt," said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. "The Andean Trade 
Preference Expansion Act is important to U.S. national security and to the 
security of the democratically elected governments in the Andean region."

Renewal of the trade act easily passed the House last November, but action 
in the Senate has been delayed because Democratic leaders have decided to 
combine it with two more controversial issues -- giving the president broad 
authority to negotiate new trade agreements and expanding a program to 
retrain and sustain trade-displaced workers.

The Senate is expected to take up that trade package next week, but 
progress could be slow and any bill that is passed would still have to be 
reconciled with the House.

Graham's bill does face some opposition from textile state senators because 
it would extend duty-free, quota-free treatment to apparel from the four 
Andean countries as long as they used yarn and fabric made in the United 
States. He said that provision was necessary to put the Andean states on a 
par with Mexico and Caribbean nations that already enjoy such treatment.

The House-passed bill also included duty-free status for canned tuna, a 
measure that would help Ecuador compete against canned tuna from Mexico.

On the Net: Graham: http://graham.senate.gov/
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