Liberal in Congress are desperate to satisfy both their labor union masters who oppose all trade and their new Wall Street donors who generally support open trade policies. To this end, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is desperately trying to blame the House’s failure to even vote on the Colombia Free Trade Agreement on the White House’s decision to submit the agreement before getting her consent. U.S. Susan Schwab set the record striaght on the reason for the timing of the agreement’s submittal to Congress yesterday:
“I would argue (President George W. Bush) had no choice and were we to repeat this, the president would still have no choice,” Schwab said in remarks at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Bush submitted the agreement to Congress in April, 18 months after it was signed and at the last possible date to ensure lawmakers would vote on it before they were scheduled to adjourn for the year in September, Schwab said.
