WASHINGTON, June 25: Sugar-state lawmakers continue to meet with the Bush administration to ease industry concerns that threaten a Central American free trade pact headed for a vote in Congress, one of the negotiators said on Friday.
We’re still talking, said Rep. Mark Foley, a Florida Republican. Nobody’s declared a truce or a victory.
Intense sugar industry opposition is one of several obstacles that could block approval of the US-Central American Free Trade Agreement, or CAFTA, which President George W. Bush formally submitted to Congress late on Thursday.
Under the 2002 trade act, lawmakers now have 90 legislative days to decide whether to reject or approve the agreement without making any changes.
The Bush administration would like Congress to approve the pact before taking a week-long break early next month.
The Senate could vote on CAFTA by the end of next week, but there was no decision on when the House of Representatives would take up the measure, aides said.
Sugar-state lawmakers will meet with the administration again on Monday, one day before the Senate Finance Committee is scheduled to vote on CAFTA.
Members of that panel from sugar-producing states have expressed concerns about a CAFTA provision that would allow Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic to ship more sugar to the United States.
The Bush administration has balked at a proposal to convert that sugar into nonfood uses, such as ethanol, because of the cost, Foley said. But there still might be a chance of establishing a pilot program for that, he said.
At the same time, sugar producers could “poison the well” for support of the federal sugar program if they blocked CAFTA, which is a presidential priority, Foley said.
I don’t want us to win a battle and lose a war, he said.
Sen. Craig Thomas, a Wyoming Republican, hopes to persuade Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, to delay committee action to give lawmakers more time to work out a sugar deal, a spokesman for Thomas said.
An administration proposal to ensure imports from CAFTA countries do not push total sugar imports above a key farm program threshold level of 1.532 million short tons would provide only short-term relief, the spokesman said.
US Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said on Thursday he could use his authority through the end of the farm bill in 2007 to buy other US farm goods and trade those commodities with CAFTA countries in lieu of them sending sugar to us.
Even if a sugar deal is struck, most Democrats are opposed to CAFTA on the grounds that its labor provisions are not strong enough. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said on Thursday that 90 percent of party members in the House could vote against the pact.—Reuters
