Bush to OAS: Free trade will aid Americas

By DAVID ADAMS
Published June 7, 2005

FORT LAUDERDALE - President Bush touted free trade as a panacea for the Americas in a speech Monday to foreign ministers from the hemisphere gathered here for a three-day meeting.

"An Americas linked by trade is less likely to be divided by resentment and false ideologies," he told the General Assembly of the Organization of American States, the region's main political forum.

Bush said the latest free trade deal with the five Central American countries and the Dominican Republic, which is about to be presented to Congress for approval, would create new investment, good jobs and higher labor standards.

But the agreement, known as CAFTA, has so far failed to inspire much public support outside Florida, which stands to gain the most. Unlike its similarly named predecessor with Mexico and Canada, the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, CAFTA lacks bipartisan support in Congress.

Critics say previous free trade agreements have actually resulted in job losses and ignoring labor abuses, while failing to spread wealth beyond a small corporate elite.

Undaunted, Bush used his speech to give his strongest endorsement of the agreement yet. "I urge the United States Congress to pass it," he said.

Bush made little reference to the political turmoil currently swirling across Latin America. Instead he painted a rosy picture of "freedom on the march" around the globe, referring to prodemocracy revolutions in Georgia, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan and Lebanon. "And these are just beginnings," he said.

He made no mention of the undemocratic ouster of several presidents in the Americas in the past two years - in Haiti, Bolivia and Ecuador - nor the critical situations still existing in those countries.

Bush largely ignored bickering over the main topic at the OAS meeting: how best to defend democracy in the hemisphere and deliver its benefits to the people. In a speech Sunday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called on the OAS to toughen its stand on governments that fail to live up to democratic principles. Her words were taken as a stab at Venezuela, a target of U.S. criticism lately due to controversial measures by its leftist president, Hugo Chavez.

But a U.S. proposal to create new OAS "mechanisms" to monitor democracy in the region and make leaders more accountable appears to have little backing among the 34 member states. Venezuela has openly attacked the proposal, saying it lies beyond the competence of the OAS and violates the organizations' principle of nonintervention in the internal affairs of its members.

Other countries have expressed similar reservations.

"We believe in preaching by example," said Brazil's foreign minister, Celso Amorim.

[Last modified June 7, 2005, 02:15:48]