Republican leaders in the House and Senate said Tuesday that legislation to give the president renewed authority to negotiate global trade accords has failed to gain enough support in Congress and blamed President Clinton for not doing enough to win over Democrats.
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) said there is little momentum behind the legislation and “some concern whether it will come to fruition before the end of the year” because the White House is too disengaged. House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) was far more pointed, declaring that there aren’t enough votes in the House to pass the trade measure known as “fast track” and implying that Republicans are reluctant to bail out Clinton on legislation that so many Democrats oppose.
“I do not today see the votes in the House to pass fast track,” Gingrich said. “I believe the legislation is in very deep trouble.”
The Republican leaders sounded as if they were proclaiming the imminent death of the bill that would enable Clinton to complete the trade agenda at the center of his foreign policy. Clinton has repeatedly described renewing his negotiating authority as an issue of American world leadership and said that backing away would harm American exports and send a message that the United States would not press for market openings around the world.
Administration officials said they read the Republican comments about the bill’s troubles as a negotiating tactic, not a death sentence. Noting that there were similar impasses over the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1993 and in the budget accord this year, they suggested the GOP leaders were probing to see what concessions Clinton was willing to make on other issues.
