Bush Promises to Seek Authority for Trade Negotiations.

Publication: The Miami Herald (Miami, Florida) (via Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News)

Bookmark this article Print this article Link to this article Email this article Digg It! Add to del.icio.us RSS

COPYRIGHT 2001 The Miami Herald

Byline: Andres Oppenheimer

Apr. 22--QUEBEC--As police battled protesters outside with water cannons, President Bush on Saturday promised 33 leaders at the Summit of the Americas that he will ask Congress before the end of the year for extra powers to negotiate a hemisphere-wide free trade area -- and confidently predicted that he'll get them.

In his first speech before a multi-nation summit, Bush tried to reassure all leaders of the hemisphere -- except Cuba, which was not invited -- that he is serious about advancing a 1994 inter-American agreement to launch a Free Trade Area of the Americas by 2005.

U.S. congressional approval remains a serious obstacle.

"I'm committed to obtaining trade-promotion authority [from Congress] before the end of the year," Bush told his counterparts Saturday. "I'm confident that I will get it."...

Read the full article for free courtesy of your local library.