HOUSE UNIT PLANS HEARINGS TO QUIET BEEFS ON NAFTA
Byline: Joyce Barrett
WASHINGTON — The chairman of the House Trade Subcommittee said Thursday that he planned to hold hearings later this year to quiet the growing chorus of complaints centering on the North American Free Trade Agreement.
The hearings have yet to be scheduled, however, and no plans to do so are expected until after the balanced budget dispute with the Clinton administration is resolved, Rep. Phil Crane (R., Ill.) said in an interview.
Crane further noted that he would not be advancing a bipartisan measure that would force the Clinton administration to renegotiate or withdraw from NAFTA if U.S. jobs are lost.
Crane said he wanted the hearings in reaction to the grumblings about the growing trade deficit with Mexico, problems with the provision that would permit Mexican truckers to enter the U.S., the peso devaluation and reports that since NAFTA was implemented two years ago, environmental and working conditions along the U.S.-Mexico border have not improved. A report released this week by the consumer activist group Public Citizen hit at what it said were worsening environmental and labor conditions on the border..
In an earlier letter to Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D., Ohio), a cosponsor of the bill to force renegotiation of or withdrawal from NAFTA, Crane said his hearings would focus on the operation and effect of NAFTA, its economic benefits, the status of its implementation and the prospects for expanding it to other Western hemisphere countries.
In Crane’s view, NAFTA was not aimed specifically at keeping the peso strong or improving environmental or labor conditions in Mexico. It was, as Crane sees it, meant basically to facilitate trade on the North American continent.
The congressman said he also plans hearings on the GATT Uruguay Round and how the first year under the expanded trade pact has progressed. Also, Crane said he planned to explore the effects NAFTA has had on industries operating in the 24 island nations in the Caribbean.
On other trade matters, Crane said, “I don’t see much getting done in a positive way on our trade agenda, and that includes things dear and near to me.”
These include extending fast-track negotiating authority to the administration for negotiations to bring Chile into NAFTA and giving trade parity with Mexico to the Caribbean. Last year Crane sponsored a plan to extend trade privileges to the Caribbean similar to those given Mexico under NAFTA. It did not advance in the House because of opposition from certain textile-state members who feared it would cost their districts jobs and stalled in the Senate because of opposition from Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R., Kan.).
A separate push was made to give the administration fast-track authority, which means that any pacts negotiated would be free from threat of Congressional changes. A plan was approved by Republicans on the House Trade Subcommittee, but was strongly opposed by U.S. Trade Representative Mickey Kantor and House Democrats because it did not include protections for labor standards and the environment. Negotiations continued between Kantor and House Republicans until just recently, but have been terminated.