Bush, Peruvian meet
President Bush dusted off his Spanish for an Oval Office meeting with Peruvian President Alan Garcia on Monday as the leaders discussed trade, reviewed efforts to fight cocaine production and exchanged condolences over the Virginia Tech massacre, which claimed the life of a Peruvian student.
Garcia announced that Bush would visit Peru next year, and the South American chief of state said he was in Washington to urge Congress to pass a free-trade agreement the administration has reached with his nation.
“It is vital to our country,” Garcia said.
He cited Peru’s 8% growth rate, which he expects the Andean nation to reach again this year, warning that “this growth ... needs a greater space and a greater degree of investment, and for that the FTA [free-trade agreement] is essential.”
After welcoming Garcia in Spanish with “Es hombre muy amable” -- he’s a very friendly guy -- Bush used the joint appearance to send a message to Republicans and Democrats. “I urge them to vote yes” on the trade pact, he said.
Congress also is set to consider trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea, and to decide whether to extend the president’s power to negotiate such agreements before it expires at the end of June.
Trade has been a thorny subject between the White House and the Democratic-controlled Congress. Democrats want agreements that help consumers in developing countries gain greater access to low-cost medicines. They are also pushing the Bush administration to include tougher environmental standards and labor protections in the accords in exchange for their support.
Just 15 Democrats in the House and 11 in the Senate, including Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, backed the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement when Congress approved it in 2005.
Speaking in the bloom-filled garden outside the Oval Office, Garcia said he had told Bush about the “head-on fight against drug trafficking in my country.”
He praised Bush’s trip last month to Latin America and referred to the riots that convulsed Sao Paulo, Brazil, during the trip as “some political reactions, which are typical.”
Then he returned Bush’s compliment, but through an interpreter. “You are a very nice person,” Garcia said.
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