MONTERREY, May 14: The Bush administration will not renegotiate a controversial free-trade pact with Central America despite strong opposition from labour groups and the sugar industry, US Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said on Friday. As US President George W. Bush stepped up his bid this week for congressional approval of the US-Central America Free Trade Agreement, or CAFTA, Gutierrez told Reuters the plan would not go back to the drawing board even though lawmakers are skeptical of its ability to pass.

It’s a treaty that has already been negotiated and even approved by the congresses in three Central American countries, Gutierrez said in an interview during a hemispheric forum in Monterrey. We don’t feel the need to renegotiate anything. On Thursday, Bush promised Central American leaders in Washington he would fight for the pact, by far the most controversial of the six free-trade agreements he has negotiated since taking office.

Few Democrats have come out in favour of CAFTA, making it likely the Republicans in the US House of Representatives will have to supply most of the votes it needs to pass. In the US Senate it faces obstacles because of sugar and textile industry concerns. Opponents say it does not meet labour and environmental standards, among other flaws.

Leaders from Costa Rica, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras and the Dominican Republic met with Bush after visiting 10 US cities this week to drum up support for the pact. They lobbied members of Congress on Wednesday, but that has not yielded any new endorsements.

The Bush administration argues that the labour and environmental provisions meet guidelines set by Congress in 2002 and are as strong as those in free trade pacts with other nations, which were backed by Democrats. There is always strong debate at first with free-trade agreements, but the details of CAFTA are so logical and of such benefit to the United States and Central America that we feel that when they are known it will have support, Gutierrez said. —Reuters