U.S., Australia to sign free-trade deal

The United States and Australia on May 18 plan to sign a free-trade agreement, setting the stage for a congressional vote before this year’s election.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick yesterday announced the Australia signing date and the start of talks with two new countries, Peru and Ecuador, also in May.

“President Bush is relentless in continuing the drive for free trade,” Mr. Zoellick said yesterday when making the Peru and Ecuador announcement.

Mr. Zoellick has completed or is working on a series of negotiations that would more than triple the number of countries that have bilateral trade pacts with the United States.

Negotiations began last week with Panama, and are continuing this week with five southern African nations. Colombia will be packaged with the two other Andean nations, and Thailand and Bahrain also are in the works.

Australia, Morocco and five Central American nations — Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua — as well as the Dominican Republic, have completed negotiations. The pacts await formal signatures and approval from lawmakers.

The 19 nations collectively account for about 4.7 percent of total U.S. trade, according to the General Accounting Office.

The two largest potential agreements — with the 147-member World Trade Organization and among 34 Western Hemisphere nations negotiating a Free Trade Area of the Americas — are behind schedule and not on track for completion by end-of-year deadlines.

Congress last year easily approved agreements with Chile and Singapore, but the election-year atmosphere has made any votes this year less certain. Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, has attacked Bush administration trade policy in general, and the Central American agreement as weak on enforcement for labor rights and environmental protection.

The Central American deal is unlikely to make it to the House or Senate floor because of uncertain prospects.

But the Bush administration and some Republican leaders in Congress are pushing for a vote on Australia and perhaps Morocco. Despite a handful of vocal opponents, Australia has the best chances of winning approval this year, while Morocco has gained little attention and little opposition.

“I think both of these are winnable,” said Bill Reinsch, president of the National Foreign Trade Council, a business lobby that supports the agreements.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas, California Republican, last week said chances of a vote on Australia this year are “very high.” Mr. Thomas’ committee has jurisdiction over trade matters.

Under Trade Promotion Authority won by President Bush in August 2002, the agreements will go to Congress for a yes or no vote, with no amendments allowed.