Bush presses Congress on trade, urges Doha deal
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush called on Monday for the successful conclusion of world trade talks this year and pressed Congress to approve free trade deals with Colombia, Panama and South Korea.
"Today, our economic growth increasingly depends on our ability to sell American goods, crops and services all over the world," Bush said in his final State of the Union address to Congress.
"So we are working to break down barriers to trade and investment wherever we can. We are working for a successful Doha round of trade talks, and we must complete a good agreement this year," Bush said.
The Doha round of world trade talks was launched a little more than six years ago. Many analysts believe the talks could drag on for several more years unless completed before the next U.S. president takes office in January 2009.
Washington is under pressure to offer deeper farm subsidy cuts in the negotiations, and is insisting advanced developing countries like Brazil and India do their part by opening their markets to more foreign farm and manufactured goods.
The chairmen of the World Trade Organization's agriculture and manufactured goods negotiating groups in Geneva are expected to issue revised texts in coming weeks that could set the stage for a final deal, or expose deep remaining differences in the talks.
COLOMBIA TRADE DEAL
Bush also wants to win congressional approval this year of bilateral trade deals his administration has negotiated with Colombia, South Korea and Panama.
House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi has resisted pressure to schedule a vote on Colombia, the first pact the White House wants Congress to approve.
Pelosi and other senior House Democrats say they need to see more proof Colombia is serious about ending violence against trade unionists and putting their killers in jail.
Bush spoke as if it were certain that Congress would consider the Colombia agreement and -- in a veiled reference -- warned that rejecting the pact would be a victory for U.S. foes in Latin America such as Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
"The first agreement that will come before you is with Colombia, a friend of America that is confronting violence and terror and fighting drug traffickers. If we fail to pass this agreement, we will embolden the purveyors of false populism in our hemisphere," Bush said.
Democratic leaders also oppose the South Korean agreement, which they say would open the U.S. market to more automobile imports without tearing down South Korean regulatory barriers that block U.S. car and truck exports.
The Panama agreement ran into trouble last year when that country's National Assembly elected as its president a lawmaker wanted in the United States on charges of killing a U.S. soldier in 1992.
(Editing by Howard Goller)
