By Missy Ryan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A failure to approve a free trade deal with Colombia, one of the Bush administration's most urgent trade priorities, would be among the biggest U.S. blunders in the Americas in decades, a top official said.
Tom Shannon, the top U.S. official for Latin America, urged Democratic leaders in Congress to shelve political interests and embrace the bilateral deal, which would permanently slash trade barriers between the United States and one of its most stalwart allies in the region.
"Not approving the Colombia free trade agreement really would be one of the biggest strategic blunders the United States would have made in the Americas for decades," Shannon said on Friday in the Reuters Latin America Investment Summit.
The Bush administration has been struggling for months to convince the Democratic majority in Congress, increasingly skeptical of global trade, that President Alvaro Uribe has done enough to curb violence against union members in Colombia.
Trade officials have already sought to appease some of lawmakers' concerns by strengthening protections in the agreement for workers and the environment.
They're now expected to soon submit the deal to Congress, setting off a 90-day deadline for a vote, even as leaders like House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi warn the answer may be "No."
Six top members of the Bush administration wrote a letter to Pelosi on Friday expressing support for the deal, and arguing that violence against labor unionists had declined.
"The government of Colombia has engaged actively to address these concerns, and we have already seen concrete evidence of sustained results," said the letter signed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Agriculture Secretary Edward Schafer, Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao and U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab. Continued...
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