McCain praises benefits of free trade in trip to Colombia
CARTAGENA, Colombia - Senator John McCain hailed the economic benefits of free trade to Colombians yesterday, raising the possibility of an eventual hemispheric-wide agreement even though a weak economy at home has soured many US voters on trade agreements.
The GOP presidential nominee-in-waiting also toured Colombia's largest port to review the country's US-backed drug interdiction programs a day after he praised President Alvaro Uribe for Colombia's anti-drug efforts but pressed him to improve the government's record on human rights.
McCain was in the country when Colombia freed Ingrid Betancourt and three US military contractors from leftist guerrillas. Uribe had told McCain and the two senators traveling with him, Joseph Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut, and Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, about the rescue plans when they arrived Tuesday night.
The senators were holding a media availability at the time of the rescue and didn't learn of its success until they were aboard a plane bound for Mexico.
The Arizona senator got in several plugs for a proposed US-Colombian Free Trade Agreement his Democratic opponent, Barack Obama, opposes, suggesting the tariffs imposed on American goods now exported to Colombia would disappear under the agreement - creating jobs in the United States instead.
McCain was also promoting the North American Free Trade Agreement, which he has said would benefit the US economy over time.
Such agreements have been deeply unpopular in several general election swing states like Ohio and Michigan.
And he said such trade agreements should be broadened to include other countries.
"I would like to see a hemispheric free trade agreement," McCain said at a news conference here. "I would like to see our continued assistance to countries like Colombia."
Protectionist sentiment at home is worrisome "because history shows that isolationism and protectionism has very unpleasant consequences," McCain said.
But he added: "I am committed to getting every single American displaced from his or her job because of foreign competition . . . a new job and a better future."
The Republican presidential hopeful wrapped up a visit to Colombia and was headed to Mexico on a two-day Latin American swing he insisted was not intended to be political.
The Obama campaign criticized McCain's visit in an e-mail to reporters yesterday, saying the Republican's support for trade agreements "just underscores his insistence on continuing George Bush's failed economic policies that have left nearly 2.5 million more workers unemployed."
In a call in Washington organized by the Democratic National Committee, Linda Chavez-Thompson said McCain's support for the Colombia free trade agreement is nothing more than Washington politics putting lobbyists and special interests first.
Chavez-Thompson, a former executive vice president of the AFL-CIO, pointed to McCain adviser Charlie Black, who recently retired from the prominent Washington lobbying firm he helped found. The firm has long represented companies with major business interests in Colombia, including 