Many Democrats are not in a mood to compromise. They are adamant that they will not agree to trade promotion authority unless new trade agreements include labor and environmental standards and the possibility of using trade sanctions to enforce them. Those demands have long been rejected by Republicans for fear they will encourage protectionism and interrupt trade flows. Republicans, however, may be more inclined to compromise now that Mr. Bush is in the White House, on the grounds that he would be much less likely than former President Bill Clinton to allow such provisions to be used for protectionist purposes. Both Mr. Bush and Mr. Zoellick are hinting heavily they are ready to deal on these issues.
Business is now more ready to follow suit, if only to get trade negotiations moving again.
The current plan, according to the House leadership, is for Mr. Bush to ask for fast-track authority this summer. He will use the same debatable argument he did to promote his tax cuts, that increased trade will help boost the sluggish U.S. economy, even if the related tariff cuts in the Americas would not start until 2006. Mr. Zoellick has floated the idea of an omnibus bill to include such pet Democratic projects as the recent U.S. trade agreement with Jordan, which includes labor and environmental provisions, and more help for workers displaced by imports. But the Democrats are not biting. The best time for a deal might be September, when budget spending is being decided and Mr. Bush could buy support from individual members, just as Mr. Clinton did to win backing for the North American Free Trade Agreement.