|
|
Change Your Life! |
Bush touts free trade, links with Mexico |
|
News |
|
|
May 17, 2000 AUSTIN,
MAY 16 (AP) - Shortly after he was elected governor, George W. Bush
attended the inauguration of Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo. Friendship
blossomed as the Texan promoted free trade and close ties.
Now
Bush, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, cites his
relationship with Mexico as one of his foreign policy credentials and
extolls the benefits of the North American Free Trade Agreement despite
critics' arguments that the pact hurts U.S. workers.
"NAFTA
is good for Texas, it is good for Mexico, and it is important for our
citizens to understand it is good for America," Bush says. With Texas
accounting for nearly half the U.S. exports to Mexico, he says, "I
have seen firsthand the benefits of trade and free trade."
As
a presidential candidate, he is taking his views further, favoring
permanent normal trade relations with China and admitting China and Taiwan
into the World Trade Organization. There, too, organized labor contends
that granting China permanent normal trade status would pull jobs from the
United States. A House of Representatives vote on China trade is set for
this month.
Vice
President Al Gore, Bush's Democratic presidential rival, also favors
China's entry into the WTO, ors.
Most
of George W. Bush's trade background relates to Mexico, which shares a
1,200-mile (1.930-kilometer) border with Texas. Ties with Mexico have been
a priority since he was elected governor in 1994.
When
some Republicans would speak against Mexican immigrants, Bush would refuse
to take part, said Jorge Gonzalez, chairman of the economics department at
Trinity University in San Antonio. Instead, Bush built relationships with
Mexico's leaders and touted free trade as a way to create economic
opportunities on both sides of the border.
"I
think this has paid off very well for the state of Texas," Gonzalez
said.
Trade between the United States and Mexico now totals about dlrs 200 billion annually, and Texas accounted for almost half the dlrs 87 billion in U.S. exports to Mexico last year, according to the Texas Department of Economic Development.
Electronic
equipment comprises the largest portion, followed by transportation
equipment, industrial machinery, chemicals and rubber and plastics.
Since
NAFTA's passage in 1993, Texas has accounted for one of every 10 new jobs
added to the U.S. economy, said Bush spokesman Scott McClellan.
But
not everyone in Texas likes the effect of the trade pact, which the Texas
AFL-CIO labor federation says sent thousands of jobs across the border
because of lower wages. The labor group cites El Paso as the Texas city
suffering the worst, with a loss of 25,000 jobs.
Though
NAFTA advocates say jobs have been created by the trade pact to offset any
losses, organized labor attributes job creation to a strong domestic
economy fueled by high technology, said Ed Sills, spokesman for the Texas
AFL-CIO.
Bush
has joined Zedillo in the past year to dedicate two new international
bridges on the Texas-Mexico border built to handle increased trade
traffic, most recently in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. Laredo, Texas, the
adjoining city on the U.S. side, is the nation's largest inland port with
up to 10,000 commercial trucks crossing the border.
The Bush campaign has called on the Clinton administration to open access to Mexican commercial trucks as provided for by NAFTA.
Trucks
from the United States and Mexico were supposed to be able to travel
throughout each other's border states starting in 1995 and throughout each
other's country by this year.
The
Bush campaign and others claim that Clinton administration allegiance to
organized labor is the reason truck access has remained limited. The 1.4
million-member Teamsters Union opposes opening the roads.
The
Gore campaign says safety is the real issue because Mexico's trucks and
drivers aren't required to meet the same standards as those in the United
States. The administration is continuing to work with Mexico toward
opening the roads, a Gore campaign spokesman said.
|