WASHINGTON, July 16: A small group of textile state lawmakers could reach a deal with the Bush administration as early as next week that would secure their vote for a free trade agreement with Central America, South Carolina Republican Rep. Bob Inglis said on Friday.

I’d very much like to vote for CAFTA and I will if we can get these things addressed, Inglis told Reuters.

President George W. Bush traveled on Friday to North Carolina — the heart of US textile country — to make his strongest pitch yet for the US House of Representatives to approve the U.S. Central American Free Trade Agreement, or CAFTA.

He argued the agreement would keep US jobs from moving to Asia by promoting greater integration between the textile and apparel industries in the United States and Central America.

In 2004, North Carolina exported more than $1.7 billion worth of manufactured goods to CAFTA nations, most of it textiles and apparel. Without CAFTA, the market for these textiles in Central America would likely disappear. And so would thousands of jobs here, Bush said.

North Carolina’s two Republican senators — Elizabeth Dole and Richard Burr — both voted for CAFTA last month. But Rep. Sue Myrick, a Republican from Charlotte, is the state’s only House member to endorse the pact, and another North Carolina Republican, Rep. Walter Jones, has been at the forefront of efforts to defeat it.

With Republican leaders promising a vote on the agreement before the August congressional break, the Bush administration is still short of the 218 votes it needs for approval in the House. The Senate approved the pact 54-45.

Inglis said he knew at least four or five other textile state lawmakers who would be willing to vote for CAFTA if their concerns in three areas were addressed.

One involves a commitment Central American countries recently have made that pocketings and linings for clothes produced in the region come only from CAFTA countries.

Inglis said he was in discussions with House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas, a California Republican, on whether US legislation was needed for that.

Another involves the operation of a special tariff preference program for Nicaragua to ensure that US fabric sales to that country are not hurt by the provision.

Inglis said US Trade Representative Rob Portman was working with the Nicaraguans to see if he could reach an agreement on that issue.

Textile state lawmakers also want the Bush administration to provide assurances that so-called “cumulation provisions” won’t allow Chinese fabric transshipped from Mexico to qualify for duty-free US treatment under CAFTA, Inglis said.

Textile state lawmakers hope to receive a letter from the Bush administration giving assurances on those provisions.

Inglis said he hoped all three issues could be resolved as early as next week.

Meanwhile, aides to Rep. Robin Hayes and Charles Taylor, both North Carolina Republicans, said Bush’s speech would not persuade the two lawmakers to vote for the pact.

There are just too many concerns that have not been resolved for him to be able to support CAFTA, a spokeswoman for Hayes said. “He has to look out for the mills that are still in our district. The majority of those are opposed.—Reuters