By Estrella Gutiérrez
CARACAS, Sep 8 1997 (IPS)

U.S. President Bill Clinton will start to wage a last battle Wednesday to put free trade in the Americas on the fast track – of crucial importance not only for his administration, but for the future of Latin America as a whole.

The 27-member Latin American Economic System (SELA) issued a report Monday that describes the negotiations for ‘fast track’ negotiating authority as “vital to the process of the conformation of the Free Trade Areas of the Americas (FTAA).”

The Caracas-based SELA states in its report, titled “Antenna on the United States”, that the battle Clinton will launch Wednesday will require “a combination of diplomacy and enormous political will.”

Fast track authority is indispensable for Clinton to be able to negotiate new trade pacts and speed them through Congress, where lawmakers would approve or reject the agreements, but not amend them.

Since the mid-1970s, fast track has been used by U.S. administrations to reach far-reaching commercial accords, such as multilateral ones in the framework of the rounds in Tokyo and Uruguay, and free trade treaties with Israel, Canada and Mexico.

But since the start of his first term in 1993, Clinton has unsuccessfully sought a renewal of fast-track authority, because the Republican Party majority in the two houses of Congress have made it difficult for him to obtain the necessary backing of 218 of the 435 Representatives and 50 of the 100 Senators.

If he fails to obtain it by April 1998, when formal FTAA negotiations will be launched at the Summit of the Americas in Chile, “it could be a last effort” on the trade front until Clinton’s successor takes the reins of government in 2001, SELA warns.

It would also mean an early burial for FTAA, because without fast track, the Clinton administration would be left without strength to negotiate with the rest of the continent, as any agreements reached could later be overridden by Congress.

The SELA report says Clinton will do everything in his power to pull the discussions out of the realm of supporters and opponents of free trade, in particular an opening towards the region south of the Rio Grande, in the wake of the experience with the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that went into effect in early 1994 with Canada and Mexico.

Clinton will base his efforts to make historical progress on a future FTAA on “pragmatic” proposals, avoiding academic arguments in favour of free trade, the report adds.

His central argument will be that if Washington does not move to defend its interests, it will be left behind by other powers such as Japan and the European Union, which have forged important commercial links with areas under their influence.

In August, Clinton underscored that Latin America was an emerging market which next century, like Asia, would grow three times more than the U.S. economy. He added that if the United States failed to secure the region through a special accord, its competitors would do so.

The president pointed out that since 1992 the country’s competitors had negotiated 20 trade agreements with Asia and Latin America, none of which include the United States.

He will also prevent the debate from focusing on NAFTA’s pros and cons for the United States, because his opponents have depicted a link between the agreement and Mexico’s financial woes, as well as between the openess of the U.S. market to Latin American and Caribbean countries and an inflow of poor quality goods.

Clinton will use tactics that proved successful in obtaining congressional approval for NAFTA in 1993 – which has led the current battle for fast track to be dubbed NAFTA-II.

The Clinton administration has sought accords with key legislators to obtain support in exchange for adding in questions important to groups like the congressional black caucus – interested in a special accord with Africa and the Caribbean – or the Hispanic caucus.

“Clinton was willing to negotiate on any point of interest to any member of Congress,” SELA underlined.

If successful, the negotiations for fast track will lead to a basic law on trade.

Among the elements complicating Clinton’s race to reach the April summit with fast-track in hand, SELA mentions that advocates of free trade “have been completely inactive,” by contrast with their adversaries.

It also underlines that the leading Democratic and Republican figures will participate in the debate “with their eyes on the presidential elections of the year 2000.”

That includes Vice-President Al Gore, a booster of the opening of trade in the Americas, and his main rival within the Democratic Party, House of Representatives Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, who is opposed to free trade.

The negotiations for fast track will focus on three areas: the controversial labour and environmental stipulations; initiatives of specific interest to Democratic groups; and business questions of narrow scope. With the last two, Clinton would ensure the backing of isolated groups of legislators.

But, the report adds, powerful business associations in the United States have already announced that they will only support fast track if no labour and environmental provisions are included.

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