It took US President George W. Bush less than three months to get Congress to pass Free Trade Agreements with Chile, Morocco, Australia and Singapore, but a year after the initial signing, the legislation that empowers the DR-CAFTA agreement is still pending in the US Congress. A proposal now on the table, to submit the proposal to a vote as quickly as possible was not put there by the bill’s proponents, but, rather, by the opponents of the bill. Democratic senator Byron Dorgan said that he felt the legislation would cost thousands of American jobs.
The bill’s proponents had said that they felt that the vote would come in May, based on the eventual abolition of most tariffs on agricultural and industrial goods and services exported to the six countries involved in the deal. The bill’s strongest advocate, Republican Kevin Brady, predicted that the bill would come to a vote in June or by mid-July.
In yesterday’s White House press conference, Bush said that he felt that the treaty “would be good for farmers and workers and small businesses.” He pointed out that currently 80% of the goods and services that enter the US from these six countries do so under a duty-free agreement. The DR-CAFTA agreement will allow 80% of US exports to enter these countries duty-free. Last week the Business Roundtable began running an ad campaign in favor of the treaty.