Democrats seek changes in Colombia, Peru pacts

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration needs to change free trade agreements with Colombia, Peru and Panama in order to win their approval in Congress, senior Democrats said on Tuesday.

House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, a New York Democrat, told reporters he believed Democrats and the Bush administration were close to a deal on a long list of trade concerns his party had raised.

"We are on the brink of restoring bipartisanship to trade policies," Rangel said.

That will require changing labor provisions of the Peru and Colombia agreements to include an enforceable commitment to abide by core international labor standards, said Rep. Sander Levin, a Michigan Democrat who heads the Ways and Means trade subcommittee.

Those pacts and another agreement with Panama would also have to be changed to ensure intellectual property rights provisions do not prevent poor people in those countries from having access to life-saving drugs, he added.

Both Peru and Colombia -- along with Ecuador and Bolivia --

currently have duty-free access to the U.S. market for many of their goods under U.S. legislation that expires in June.

Levin said Democrats hoped to approve legislation to renew trade benefits for all four countries for two years.

Democrats, who won control of the U.S. Congress in November elections, have long pushed for stronger labor provisions in U.S. free trade pacts.

Levin said he believed the Peru agreement would pass easily if Democrats were able to reach a deal with the Bush administration on all their concerns.

Those include requiring "Peru to adopt and enforce laws on logging Mahogany" and making other changes to ensure the pact does not undermine U.S. port security, according to a prepared statement from the Democrats.

Some of the Democrats' demands -- such as a call for increased U.S. pressure on Chinese trade irritants -- do not directly stem from the South American free trade pacts.

Levin said the free trade agreement with Colombia carried an additional burden because of the concern that many U.S. lawmakers have about violence in that country.

He said there needs to be a thorough review of U.S. relations with Colombia in regards to the trade agreement and continued U.S. assistance under the Plan Colombia program.