Senate kills making environmental rules part of trade

On November 2, by a vote of 57 to 40, the Senate tabled (killed) an amendment to the Sub-Saharan Africa and Caribbean Trade bill (HR 434) that would have withheld the trade preferences that the underlying bill would grant to any nation until that nation reached a side agreement with the U.S. President on the environment.

Sponsor Sen. Ernest Hollings (D.-S.C.) stressed that his amendment prescribed the same requirements as NAFTA. He proposed his amendment together with another, which was also killed, requiring side agreements on labor before trade preferences were extended.

Sen. William Roth (R.-Del.) a manager of the underlying bill, opposed Hollings' amendment "The amendment undermines that effort by requiring the difficult negotiation of side agreements on both labor and the environment that delays the incentive that the bill Is intended to create. This is bad for labor and environmental conditions in the beneficiary countries as well as their economies."

Roth said that environmental and labor standards are a luxury, and that nations struggling to survive cannot not afford to pay for environmental protection. He also opposed the amendment because It relied on sanctions that he said do "little to affect the behavior of the target country. Indeed, In the case of the intended beneficiaries of these tariff preference programs, they would have the opposite effect on labor and environmental protections by discouraging investment in economic growth."

Roth proposed a substitute amendment to the underlying bill that he said would address the problems of environment and labor by encouraging bilateral negotiations between the nations rather than sanctions.

Hollings denied that his amendment would cause the evils Roth claimed it would, calling on experiences with similar provisions In NAFTA. "It didn't discourage Investment in Mexico and didn't discourage Investment In Canada. it would not discourage investment."

Son. Daniel P. Moynihan (D.-N.Y.) opposed the amendment because, he said, it would "require us to negotiate 147 environmental agreements around the world before any of the provisions of the African bill or the Caribbean Basin Initiative or the tariff preferences under the Generalized System of Preferences can be extended." Moynihan moved to table the amendment.

A "yes" vote was a vote to table (kill) the amendment requ" the President to negotiate an environmental agreement before a nation could receive trade preferences. A "no" vote was, In effect, a vote to require such environmental agreements.

FOR THE TABLING: 57

REPUBLICANS FOR (48): Abraham, Award, Ashcroft, Bennett, Bond, wreck, B, Bums, C, Cochran, Coverdell, Craig, Crapo, DeWine,Domenici, Bus, Fitzgerald, Frist, Gorton, Gram, Grams, Grassley, Hagel, Hatch, Hutchinson (Ark-), Hutchison(Tex.), Jeffords, Kyl, Lott Lugar, Mack McConnell, Murkowski, Nides, Roberts, Roth, Santorum, Sessions, Shelby, Smith (Ore.), Smith (N.H.), Specter, Stevens, Thomas, Thompson, Voinovich and Warner.

DEMOCRATS FOR (9): Baucus, Breaux, Dodd, Graham, Kerry (Neb.), Lieberman, Landrieu, Lincoln and Moynihan.

AGAINST THE TABLING: 40

REPUBLICANS AGAINST (4): Collins, Helms, Snowe and Thurmond.

DEMOCRATS AGAINST (36): Akaka, Bayh, Biden, Bingaman, Boxer, Bryan, Byrd, Cleland, Conrad, Daschle, Doran, Durbin, Edwards, Feingold, Feinstein, Harlon, Hollings, Johnson, Kennedy, Kerry (Mass.), Kohl, Lauteber, Leahy, Levin, Mikulski Murray, Reed (R.I.), Reid (Nev.), Robb, Rockefeller, Sarbanes, Schumer, Toricelli, Wellstone and Wyden.

NOT VOTING: 2

REPUBLICANS (2) Gregg and McCain.

Copyright Human Events Publishing, Inc. Nov 26, 1999
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved