McClatchy DC Logo

S.C.'s Graham breaks from past, backs trade deal | McClatchy Washington Bureau

×
    • Customer Service
    • Mobile & Apps
    • Contact Us
    • Newsletters
    • Subscriber Services

    • All White House
    • Russia
    • All Congress
    • Budget
    • All Justice
    • Supreme Court
    • DOJ
    • Criminal Justice
    • All Elections
    • Campaigns
    • Midterms
    • The Influencer Series
    • All Policy
    • National Security
    • Guantanamo
    • Environment
    • Climate
    • Energy
    • Water Rights
    • Guns
    • Poverty
    • Health Care
    • Immigration
    • Trade
    • Civil Rights
    • Agriculture
    • Technology
    • Cybersecurity
    • All Nation & World
    • National
    • Regional
    • The East
    • The West
    • The Midwest
    • The South
    • World
    • Diplomacy
    • Latin America
    • Investigations
  • Podcasts
    • All Opinion
    • Political Cartoons

  • Our Newsrooms

Politics & Government

S.C.'s Graham breaks from past, backs trade deal

James Rosen - McClatchy Newspapers

    ORDER REPRINT →

April 11, 2008 05:16 PM

WASHINGTON — As President Bush tries to push a U.S.-Colombia free trade agreement through Congress, he has an unusual ally: Sen. Lindsey Graham.

Despite compiling a protectionist voting record during his 13 years in the House and Senate, Graham backs the U.S.-Colombia deal Bush sent to Congress on Monday.

The Seneca Republican's main reason for backing the accord has little to do with trade: He views Colombia as a key ally in South America that will stand up to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and other anti-U.S. leaders in the region.

"Battle lines are being formed in Latin America," Graham said Friday in an interview. "We need to look for ways to marginalize Chavez and reward our allies."

SIGN UP

Graham, who is up for election to his second Senate term in November, criticized Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her decision Thursday to delay House of Representatives consideration of the U.S.-Colombia agreement.

Pelosi said Bush had failed to consult enough with her and other Democratic congressional leaders about the trade deal.

Senior Bush aides said they've met with lawmakers for months and escorted dozens on visits to Colombia, including a November trip that Graham joined.

The flamboyant Chavez, who calls Bush "the devil," allows Colombian guerrilla forces to operate in his neighboring Venezuela. He has fanned anti-American sentiment in Ecuador and Bolivia while forging close oil ties with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice briefed reporters on the Colombia trade deal Wednesday in a rare public relations show-of-force with six Bush Cabinet members.

"From the perspective of American foreign policy and American interests, there is perhaps no more important free trade agreement in recent memory," Rice said.

Rice and other top Bush aides said Colombia in recent years has cracked down on drug cartels and paramilitary forces while moving toward democratic rule.

Opponents of the deal say the Bogota government is still rife with corruption.

"Colombia is probably the worst human rights violator in Latin America," said Larry Birns, head of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, a Washington think tank. "It's a nation where labor leaders and democratic political activists are murdered with impunity."

As with other high-profile issues, presidential politics is influencing the trade fight in Congress.

GOP aides say Democrats don't want to force Sens. Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton, one of whom will be the party's White House nominee, to vote on an accord that most U.S. labor unions oppose.

"The Democrats have chosen union bosses over the American people by embracing a protectionist agenda that will stifle job growth and hurt our economy," said Sen. Jim DeMint, a Greenville Republican.

Ironically for Graham, the U.S.-Colombia deal was negotiated under "fast track" trade authority Congress granted Bush in 2002 -- but which he opposed.

Under such authority, first granted to Richard Nixon in 1974, Congress cedes to the White House some of its constitutional power to regulate commerce, enabling presidents to negotiate trade deals expeditiously.

The proposed agreement would require Colombia to reduce or remove tariffs that cost American companies millions of dollars a year. The United States taxes Colombian goods at much lower rates.

"It's time to level the playing field," Bush said Monday.

Colombia falls far down the list of U.S. trade partners, with the two countries exchanging about $16 billion a year in goods. The trade deficit is $2 billion in Colombia's favor.

But reflecting the larger geopolitical importance Bush has placed on Colombia, it is the fifth-largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid, behind only Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel and Egypt.

Graham, who also voted against giving President Clinton fast-track power in 1998, acknowledged that it is difficult for him to back trade deals.

"Global economists bring forward complex technical analyses and reams of mind-numbing statistics to back up their claims that free trade helps lift all boats," he said.

"But I know from real-world experience that while some boats do rise, others sink," Graham said.

Many South Carolinians, he said, have suffered from economic globalization.

"Textile mills and manufacturing facilities have closed their doors because of unfair foreign competition," Graham said.

In backing the U.S.-Colombia accord, Graham is breaking with Roger Milliken, the textiles titan whose Spartanburg-based firm has been among his most generous supporters, giving him a total of $53,765 in campaign donations.

"This trade deal is a perpetuation of the failed NAFTA model," said Jock Nash, who runs Milliken's lobbying shop in Washington. "It encourages investors and companies to leave this country and set up manufacturing operations abroad."

The United States is running a cumulative $70 billion annual trade deficit with Mexico, Canada and other nations with which it has struck trade accords, Nash said.

Graham says he judges each trade agreement on its own merits, but he has opposed most deals over the last decade while serving in the House and Senate.

Graham supported trade accords with Peru, Oman, Australia and Africa. He voted against agreements with Central American nations and the Dominican Republican, Morocco, Chile, Singapore, Burma, Vietnam and other countries.

From the time he voted against extending "preferred nation" trading status to China in 1998, Graham has been among the leading congressional critics of economic ties between Washington and Beijing.

"His voting record has been quite a bit less friendly to trade than the typical Republican in Congress," said Daniel Griswold, an analyst with the libertarian Cato Institute in Washington.

  Comments  

Videos

Some Republicans were against executive power on immigration. Now they aren’t.

Trump announces national emergency to get border wall funding

View More Video

Trending Stories

Trump slams California’s ‘fast train’ as Gavin Newsom leads 16 states suing over border wall

February 19, 2019 10:46 AM

Stacey Abrams appearance at voting rights hearing has political overtones, GOP says

February 19, 2019 10:20 AM

Texas GOP searches for candidate to take on Colin Allred

February 19, 2019 05:00 AM

‘It is time to complete that revolution’: Sanders says he’s running for president

February 19, 2019 07:00 AM

Operative at center of NC election fraud hearing won’t testify

February 18, 2019 02:16 PM

Read Next

The West

Why Trump’s tweets could be used against him in California’s border emergency lawsuit

By Kate Irby

    ORDER REPRINT →

February 19, 2019 05:15 PM

California is using President Donald Trump’s tweets against him in a lawsuit challenging his national emergency declaration. The state argues there is no crisis at the Mexico border.

KEEP READING

MORE POLITICS & GOVERNMENT

VP Mike Pence plans visit to South Carolina to tour Opportunity Zones with Tim Scott

Congress

VP Mike Pence plans visit to South Carolina to tour Opportunity Zones with Tim Scott

February 19, 2019 05:22 PM

Congress

Stacey Abrams appearance at voting rights hearing has political overtones, GOP says

February 19, 2019 10:20 AM
‘It is time to complete that revolution’: Sanders says he’s running for president

Campaigns

‘It is time to complete that revolution’: Sanders says he’s running for president

February 19, 2019 07:00 AM
Trump slams California’s ‘fast train’ as Gavin Newsom leads 16 states suing over border wall

White House

Trump slams California’s ‘fast train’ as Gavin Newsom leads 16 states suing over border wall

February 19, 2019 10:46 AM
Texas GOP searches for candidate to take on Colin Allred

Elections

Texas GOP searches for candidate to take on Colin Allred

February 19, 2019 05:00 AM
Operative at center of NC election fraud hearing won’t testify

Elections

Operative at center of NC election fraud hearing won’t testify

February 18, 2019 02:16 PM
Take Us With You

Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand.

Icon for mobile apps

McClatchy Washington Bureau App

View Newsletters

Subscriptions
  • Newsletters
Learn More
  • Customer Service
  • Securely Share News Tips
  • Contact Us
Advertising
  • Advertise With Us
Copyright
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service


Back to Story