USTR defends handling of trade deals with Congress

By Doug Palmer

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab on Tuesday defended the White House's decision to force a vote on a free trade pact with Colombia, even though it provoked a showdown with Congress that crippled a 34-year-old procedure used to win approval of trade deals.

"I would argue (President George W. Bush) had no choice and were we to repeat this, the president would still have no choice," Schwab said in remarks at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

Bush submitted the agreement to Congress in April, 18 months after it was signed and at the last possible date to ensure lawmakers would vote on it before they were scheduled to adjourn for the year in September, Schwab said.

But rather than follow longstanding "fast track" procedures that guarantee a yes-or-no vote on trade agreements within 90 days, House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi pushed through a rule change that allowed her to indefinitely delay action on the free trade pact.

Pelosi said Bush ignored the advice of congressional leaders not to submit the agreement, forcing Democrats to reassert control over the legislative agenda.

The Democratic-run Congress approved a free trade deal with Colombia's neighbor, Peru, in December.

But Pelosi and other senior Democrats had been insisting that Colombia do more to stop the killing of trade unionists before Congress votes on that pact.

'GAPING HOLE'