US official promotes free trade agreements

• Susan Schwab

U.S. official promotes free trade agreements
Commerce - Susan Schwab calls on Congress to ratify NAFTA-like pacts, including those with Peru and Panama


Friday, August 10, 2007
RICHARD READ
The Oregonian Staff

The U.S. trade ambassador stumped Thursday in Portland for more NAFTA-style pacts, previewing stark economic choices faced by Congress.
U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab swept through town on a campaign-style swing promoting free trade. About three dozen demonstrators with labor and environmental groups rallied outside the Arlington Club, where she addressed business leaders.
The face-off foreshadowed debates in Congress, where party leaders are calling for progress on multination trade talks before scheduling votes.
Schwab, who holds a Cabinet-level position in the Bush administration, called on Congress to ratify trade agreements, including those with Peru, Colombia and Panama. She said the pacts would open foreign markets to U.S. exporters, boosting employment.
"These three trade agreements should be no-brainers," Schwab said during a meeting earlier Thursday with members of The Oregonian's editorial board.
Arthur Stamoulis, director of the Oregon Fair Trade Campaign, a Portland-based coalition of labor, environmental and human rights organizations, said just the opposite. "Any member of Congress from the Pacific Northwest would be nuts to support the Bush administration trade agenda," Stamoulis said.
At issue is whether trade agreements create or destroy jobs by lowering tariffs and other trade barriers. Stamoulis said thousands of jobs in Oregon alone have gone offshore since the North American Free Trade Agreement took effect in 1994. Schwab acknowledges that some jobs have been lost but says far more have been created as trade agreements expand the economic pie.
"Blocking imports," Schwab said, "never saved anybody's job."
Trade agreements are stacking up in Congress like airliners circling Chicago, forcing especially tough choices for labor-friendly Democrats who represent export centers such as Oregon. The administration is urging passage of an agreement with South Korea, arguing that farmers would benefit as $1.6 billion worth of U.S. agricultural goods would immediately become duty-free.
Schwab also is representing the United States in a round of multination trade negotiations -- named the "Doha round" after the capital of Qatar, where key talks were held. She wants Congress to reapprove legislation authorizing speedy up-or-down votes on trade agreements. Congressional leaders want Doha-round results first.
"I've told them that I will do my best," Schwab said, to "get a breakthrough in the Doha round and bring it back."
On other fronts, Schwab said the administration was pursuing complaints against China with the World Trade Organization. Senators are prodding the White House, filing bills that would include in such complaints the charge that China is manipulating its currency by suppressing the value of the yuan.
That tactic could violate WTO rules, however, said Schwab, noting that China had allowed the yuan to rise gradually -- a move that addresses the trade imbalance by making Chinese goods more expensive in the United States and U.S. products cheaper in China.
Schwab said the administration would like to see the yuan rise more quickly. But she expressed skepticism concerning an article in Wednesday's state-run China Daily newspaper that warned the Chinese central bank could suddenly sell off its vast dollar holdings to counteract fast appreciation. Financial analysts say a substantial sell-off could damage the U.S. economy, compounding effects of the housing slump.
"It's not in the Chinese interest to do that," Schwab said.

Richard Read: 503-294-5135; richread@aol.com