Clinton rejects free-trade views of her husband

ASSOCIATED PRESS

The presidential campaign of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said yesterday that the candidate’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, supports a free-trade agreement with Colombia that she strenuously opposes.

The acknowledgment adds new hurdles to Mrs. Clinton’s bid to woo Democratic voters in Pennsylvania and elsewhere who think free-trade agreements have eliminated thousands of U.S. jobs. On Sunday, the senator from New York demoted her chief campaign strategist for his role in promoting the Colombia pact.

Mrs. Clinton told union activists yesterday that she would do everything in her power to defeat the Colombia Free Trade Agreement now before Congress.

Her campaign spokesman, Jay Carson, said in response to a query from the Associated Press that the senator’s opposition is “clear and firm.” He added: “Like other married couples who disagree on issues from time to time, she disagrees with her husband on this issue. President Clinton has been public about his support for Colombia’s request for U.S. trade preferences since 2000.”

Mr. Clinton has been his wife’s most prominent campaign surrogate and advocate for months.

A high point of his presidency was passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which his wife now criticizes. White House records show that as first lady, Mrs. Clinton attended several meetings designed to build congressional support for NAFTA in the early 1990s. She said she had reservations about the pact at the time and made her feelings known in such gatherings.

Speaking about the Colombia trade deal yesterday to a meeting of the Communication Workers of America (CWA), she said: “As I have said for months, I oppose the deal. I have spoken out against the deal. I will vote against the deal and I will do everything I can to urge the Congress to reject the Colombia free-trade agreement.”

On Sunday, Mark Penn left his post as top strategist for Mrs. Clinton’s campaign after it was reported that he had met with Colombia’s ambassador to the U.S. to discuss passage of the agreement. Colombia was a client of Mr. Penn’s large public relations firm, Burson-Marsteller.

Many labor unions, including the CWA, oppose such trade deals, saying they displace U.S. jobs and encourage abuses of workers and the environment in other countries.

As president, Mr. Clinton supported trade agreements with Mexico, Canada, China and other nations, often putting him at odds with fellow Democrats and labor leaders who backed a more protectionist approach. Mr. Clinton argued that Democrats should support lower barriers to trade because the nation, on balance, would benefit.

Many nonpartisan economists agree.

In 2005, the former president was paid $800,000 by Gold Service International, a Bogota-based business development group, for four days of appearances in Mexico, Colombia and Brazil. The group supports, among other things, the Colombia Free Trade Agreement.

Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois noted his opposition to the Colombia deal when he spoke to the CWA moments after Mrs. Clinton left the stage. He said he opposes the treaty “because when organizing workers puts an organizer’s life at risk, as it does in Colombia, it makes a mockery of our labor protections.”

President Bush on Monday sent the proposed Colombia deal to Congress, which has 90 days to ratify or reject it. The administration said the agreement would help the United States by eliminating high barriers for U.S. exports to Colombia. Most Colombian products enter the U.S. duty-free under existing trade preference laws, the administration said.