Trade Pact Approved By House

So many top Bush administration officials were working the Capitol last night that Democrats joked that the hallways looked like a Cabinet meeting. Cheney made an after-dinner trip to the second floor of the Capitol and stayed until shortly after 10 p.m., meeting with members.

The Democrats voting in favor were Reps. Victor F. Snyder (Ark.), Melissa L. Bean (Ill.), Dennis Moore (Kan.), William J. Jefferson (La.), Ike Skelton (Mo.), Gregory Meeks (N.Y.), Edolphus Towns (N.Y.), Jim Cooper (Tenn.), John S. Tanner (Tenn.), Henry Cuellar (Tex.), Ruben Hinojosa (Tex.), Solomon P. Ortiz (Tex.), Jim Matheson (Utah), James P. Moran Jr. (Va.) and Norman D. Dicks (Wash.).

The Republicans voting against were Reps. Duncan Hunter (Calif.), Tom Tancredo (Colo.), Rob Simmons (Conn.), Connie Mack (Fla.), Charles Whitlow Norwood Jr. (Ga.), C.L. "Butch" Otter (Idaho), Mike Simpson (Idaho), John N. Hostettler (Ind.), Charles W. Boustany Jr. (La.), Bobby Jindal (La.), Thaddeus McCotter (Mich.), Candice S. Miller (Mich.), Gil Gutknecht (Minn.), Dennis Rehberg (Mont.), Scott Garrett (N.J.), Frank LoBiondo (N.J.), Christopher H. Smith (N.J.), Virginia Foxx (N.C.), John M. McHugh (N.Y.), Howard Coble (N.C.), Walter B. Jones Jr. (N.C.), Patrick T. McHenry (N.C.), Robert W. Ney (Ohio), Ron Paul (Tex.), Virgil H. Goode Jr. (Va.), Barbara Cubin (Wyo.) and Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.).

Among representatives from Maryland and Virginia, Republicans voted in favor and Democrats voted against except Moran, who voted for; Goode, who voted against; and Rep. Jo Ann S. Davis (R-Va.), who did not vote.

The victory for Bush was crucial because it came at a time when his clout on Capitol Hill has been called into question, and it also gave a badly needed boost to his broader free-trade agenda. The White House is hoping to hammer out a free-trade accord encompassing all the nations of the Western Hemisphere. More important, it wants to successfully conclude the talks underway in the World Trade Organization to lower trade barriers on a global basis.

Those considerations turned CAFTA into a political battleground far out of proportion to its economic significance. Proponents touted the six countries involved as constituting the second largest market for U.S. goods in Latin America after Mexico, absorbing $15 billion in U.S. exports last year. But that is just a little more than 1 percent of the $1.15 trillion in U.S. exports.

Democrats and their union backers fear that congressional approval of the accord will signal that free-trade deals are possible with almost any country, no matter how low its wages or how inadequate its labor protections. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) warned that the political consequences will come back to haunt Bush.

In the debate, proponents cited the fact that CAFTA is the latest in a series of free-trade deals with individual countries -- including Jordan, Singapore, Chile and Australia -- that Congress has approved in recent years. They demanded to know why opponents would not give the same favorable treatment to neighboring countries. Although CAFTA might not be perfect, "on the whole this agreement does much more for Central America than we will have the opportunity to do for a long time to come," Moran said.

Supporters also hammered home the argument that most imported goods from Central America already enter the U.S. market duty-free, under the Caribbean Basin Initiative. CAFTA "levels the playing field," contended Rep. Ron Lewis (R-Ky.), because it would immediately eliminate the tariffs imposed by Central American nations on 80 percent of their industrial imports from the United States, and 50 percent of the agricultural imports.

Foes retorted that CAFTA differs from accords such as the ones with Morocco and Australia. "This is the first agreement in which we would move backwards in enforcing international labor standards," said Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.), noting that the provisions protecting worker rights are weaker than those under the Caribbean pact.