WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration notified Congress on Tuesday it is opening free trade negotiations with Morocco and five countries in Central America and said it hopes to wrap up free trade deals with Chile and Singapore by the end of the year.
The notifications came in letters to congressional leaders from U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick.
Zoellick told reporters the administration was optimistic that deals could be concluded by the end of this year with Singapore and Chile. Separate teams of negotiators have been meeting this week, in Atlanta for talks on Chile and in London for Singapore negotiations.
The Singapore discussions are further advanced than those involving Chile, Zoellick, but he remains optimistic that both agreements will be completed this year.
The Bush administration also notified Congress, as required by law, that it was beginning talks with the North African Arab nation of Morocco and with five Central American countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.
The U.S. strategy is to use the free trade deals with Chile and the Central American countries to build momentum for its bigger goal of achieving the world's largest free trade zone, to cover all 34 democratic countries in the Western Hemisphere by 2005 with a Free Trade Agreement of the Americas.
Questions have been raised about the FTAA talks given criticism aired by Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, front-runner in the current Brazilian presidential election campaign. He has been openly critical of the U.S.-backed negotiations, suggesting that "the strong economies will suffocate the weak ones."
Zoellick said, however, that the administration remains ready to work with whomever wins the October elections and predicted that negotiations coming in Ecuador in November would move the process forward.
"I am relatively optimistic about the future course" of the FTAA negotiations, Zoellick said in response to a question during his appearance at the National Press Club.
Negotiations to establish free trade agreements with Chile and Singapore began during the closing months of the Clinton administration. Bush announced this year he wanted to open free trade talks with Morocco and the five Central American countries.
Currently, the United States is party to free trade agreements with only four countries — Canada and Mexico, partners in the North American Free Trade Agreement, and Israel and Jordan.
After an eight-year impasse, Congress passed in August the legislation Bush needs to negotiate new free trade agreements. Passage of trade promotion authority allows Bush to strike deals to be sent to Congress for up-or-down votes, without amendments.
During his press club appearance, Zoellick said the administration had felt it was important to extend help to the beleaguered domestic steel industry as a way of winning votes for the trade authority bill. Bush announced in March he was imposing tariffs of up to 30 percent on various categories of steel imports, prompting outcries from U.S. trading partners.
Zoellick said the administration felt the temporary tariffs, which will last three years, will give the U.S. steel industry time to modernize and become more competitive. It also helped generate the votes Bush needed to move his trade agenda forward.
"We wanted to get this agenda going," Zoellick said. "We knew there were people hurting in the United States. We knew these people had elected representatives, and frankly we thought it was a fair shot ... to allow them to get back on their feet."
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