Lawmaker sees possible deal on trade pacts

By Doug Palmer

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A top lawmaker expressed modest hope on Tuesday of a deal with the Bush administration that would set the stage for approval of free trade deals with Panama, Colombia and Peru.

"We're almost to the point that I believe we might be able to succeed" in talks on labor issues that have blocked approval of the three free trade pacts, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, a New York Democrat, said in a speech to lobbyists and trade policy specialists.

Rangel and Rep. Jim McCrery of Louisiana, the top Republican on the Ways and Means panel, have been involved in three-way talks with the Bush administration on how to revamp the agreements with Colombia, Peru and Panama to make them acceptable to a majority of lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives.

If a deal can be reached on labor, other concerns about the pact's environmental provisions, port security and ensuring poor people have access to medicine should be relatively easy to resolve, Rangel said.

Democrats want the pacts changed to include an enforceable commitment to abide by core international labor standards, which include the right to organize and bargain collectively, freedom from child labor, freedom from forced or compulsory labor and freedom from workplace discrimination. They have already rejected one Bush administration proposal.

Rangel told reporters "the present hope" was to reach a deal by March 31.

But talks could continue even if that deadline is missed. If a deal is reached on labor, then other details such as changing deadlines for pacts to be notified to Congress are manageable, a House Democratic aide said.

Peru, Colombia and two other Andean nations, Bolivia and Ecuador, currently have duty-free access to the United States under a program that expires this year.

The House Ways and Means subcommittee on trade intends to hold a hearing later this month on extending trade preference for the four countries.

"We believe our members are interested in exploring renewal," a spokesman for trade subcommittee Chairman Sander Levin, a Michigan Democrat, said.

TRADE PROMOTION AUTHORITY

A labor deal would also improve chances for renewal of trade promotion authority.

That law -- also known as fast-track -- allows the White House to negotiate trade deals that Congress must approve or reject without making any changes.

Rangel said one of the big challenges he was trying to overcome in the House was the negative view that many lawmakers have about trade. That includes newly elected members who helped Democrats win control of Congress in November, he said.

Rangel believes a "globalization adjustment assistance" program is needed to help workers who have lost their jobs, even if that is not always directly attributable to trade, one House Democratic aide said.