Bush Attacks Free-Trade Foes as Standing in Way of Progress

President Bush, campaigning for free trade with Mexico for a third day in a row Monday, accused the plan’s enemies of “opposing letting our neighbors enjoy the benefits of progress.”

Free trade, he told a breakfast audience of Latino businessmen here, will reduce the costs of food, clothing and other necessities and raise the standard of living for the poor in America. At the same time, he said, such an agreement would lead to “a more stable Mexico.”

“A stronger Mexico,” he added, “means a stronger United States.”

Labeling opponents of a trade treaty “fear mongers,” Bush said: “They seem to be the only ones who haven’t learned lately that defeatism produces defeat, while confidence and self-reliance produce greatness.”

Later Monday, Bush attended a memorial service for former Sen. John Tower (R-Tex.), who died in an airplane crash last week. Then he pitched the first ball of the season for the Texas Rangers, a professional baseball team partly owned by his son, George W. Bush.

Bush has made international commerce a major priority of his Administration. He has been pushing to lower trade barriers around the world, as well as for a U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement establishing a North American free trade zone.

Opponents of a three-nation agreement argue that such a pact would allow U.S. companies to move south of the border and exploit Mexico’s more lenient laws on environmental protection, worker safety, child labor and other protections. Bush maintains, however, that open trade would have the opposite effect.

Expanded trade will lead to prosperity in Mexico, he has argued, and “prosperity offers the surest road to worker safety, public health and, indeed, environmental quality.”

The first major test of the trade issue is expected to come when Congress votes on extending so-called “fast track” rules.

Under the fast track system, any trade pact negotiated by the Administration is guaranteed a straight yes or no vote in Congress. Otherwise, a trade agreement would be subject to unlimited amendments, and Administration officials say that would make it impossible to negotiate with other governments. Congress has until June 1 to vote on whether to allow the current fast-track rules to continue.

“As with most good things in life, competition involves risk,” Bush said, “but we’ve always been a nation of risk-takers, of adventurers.”