Bush pushes for three trade pacts

Declaring that “free trade means good-paying jobs for Americans,” President Bush today used the backdrop of the nation’s largest helicopter manufacturer to pressure Congress to pass three trade pacts that are among the top priorities of his final-year agenda.

Singling out a proposed trade agreement with Colombia, the president said that its passage would mean jobs for Americans and support an ally battling drug crime and political insurrection.

Bush made his comments at Robinson Helicopter Co. in Torrance, a company that is thriving on the strength of its international business. Frank Robinson, who started the firm in 1973, said that it was selling 70% of its production overseas.

But Robinson has not been shy about pointing out the benefit his company has found in the cheap dollar – a reality Bush ignored as he and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger toured the spotless plant, as well as when he spoke to assembled workers.

The stop was the first on a three-day cross-country tour devoted to promoting the final-year agenda that the president outlined for his administration in his State of the Union address Monday. He coupled that sales pitch with events to raise money for Republicans seeking to build on his policies in the years beyond.

At a luncheon at the Bel-Air home of venture capitalist Elliott Broidy and an early dinner in Hillsborough on the San Francisco peninsula, Bush expected to raise more than $3.2 million for the Republican National Committee, a party official said. Bush also planned fundraising stops Thursday and Friday in Nevada, Colorado and Missouri.

He will speak on his anti-terrorism efforts before a Nevada policy research group in Las Vegas, and on the economy at the headquarters of the Hallmark greeting card company in Kansas City.

With a collection of orange, red, yellow, gold and metallic blue two- and four-seat helicopters arrayed nearby, each a shiny symbol of the company’s sales growth, the president could hardly have found a better example of the impact that trade can have on a company as he promoted the pacts, stalled in Congress, with Colombia, Panama and South Korea. Robinson produces more helicopters than the better known manufacturers, Sikorsky and Bell, combined, and has service centers in 50 countries, including China and Russia.

Nor, however, could Bush have found a better advertisement for the beneficial effect of the low-value dollar. When prices are set in dollars, stronger foreign currencies reach further – and can buy more American goods. That is the flip side of Washington’s oft-stated goal of a strong dollar, which makes it cheaper for American consumers to buy imported goods.

Bush pointed out that the proposed Colombia free trade agreement would eliminate that nation’s tariffs on helicopters, currently as high as 10%, and its 5% duty on helicopter parts. The Panamanian pact would eliminate a 15% tariff on new helicopters.

“It matters to our economy, and it matters to the jobs right here,” the president said of the impact of tariff-reducing trade agreements.

The agreement with Colombia has run into trouble because leading Democrats say the country has not done enough to combat violence within its borders. The Panamanian pact has been blocked because the country’s legislature elected a leader wanted in the United States for murder. Democrats have opposed the South Korean agreement, saying it would not do enough to open the market there for U.S. beef and autos, among other products.

And, more broadly, critics argue that such pacts put American workers at risk because they cannot compete with workers in countries with lower standards of living, lower pay scales, fewer labor rights, and a willingness to ignore potentially costly environmental standards.

Noting the efforts by Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to fight drug lords and the United States’ need for similar allies in the region, Bush said “if we reject this opportunity to support a friend with good economic policy, if we turn down this free trade agreement, it will hurt our relations in South America.”

“It will give the voices of false populism something to say,” he added, in a reference to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. “It is in our strategic interests that we support democracies in our neighborhood. And it’s in our strategic interest and our economic interest that the United States Congress passes this free trade agreement with Colombia.”

As much as lowered tariffs would mean Robinson’s helicopters would cost less overseas, the real price advantage of late has come from the falling value of the dollar.

“We love to see the dollar get as low as possible,” Robinson said last autumn.

The math is simple: The lower the dollar, the cheaper his $400,000 R44 Raven II helicopters are for foreign customers – who buy about two-thirds of the 800 commercial helicopters his company makes each year.

Regardless of the role of the cheap dollar, Bush said, “You can’t tell the people at Robinson Helicopter that trade isn’t good.

“When 70% of that which you manufacture gets sold somewhere else other than the United States, they ought to have a sign walking in here and say, ‘Trade is not only good, it is great; and we want the federal government to make it easier for us to sell products.’ ”

james.gerstenzang@latimes.com