US fast track trade foes score victory in Montana

WASHINGTON, Feb 28 (Reuters) The Montana Senate voted 45-5 against Congress renewing the White House's fast track trade negotiating authority, putting pressure on the state's senior US senator to take a hard line in talks with the Bush administration on the issue.

The Montana Senate urged the US Congress to replace the ''outdated'' fast track system for negotiating and approving trade agreements with a new ''more democratic'' method that would give state legislatures a larger role in the process.

Montana is the home state of Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, who will play a major role in any renewal of fast track when it expires on June 30.

That legislation, also known as trade promotion authority, allows the White House to negotiate trade agreements that Congress must approve or reject without making changes.

Baucus, who is up for re-election in 2008, has called for fast track to be renewed with changes to give lawmakers more control over trade deals the White House negotiates.

The five-term senator has supported most free trade pacts, but voted against the US-Central American Free Trade Agreement in 2005 after Montana's Legislature expressed concern that states had not been adequately consulted about regulatory and other changes they could have to make.

''Chairman Baucus has said -- and said it to the U.S. Trade Representative -- that Congress must change the way trade agreements are negotiated and approved,'' a spokeswoman for the Democrat said in response to the Montana Senate vote.

Baucus believes a number of ''smart policy changes,'' such as setting higher standards for labor and environmental provisions and beefing up trade agreement enforcement measures, can make trade promotion authority a more effective tool for creating new US jobs, his spokeswoman said.

But labor groups and other opponents of trade deals are gearing up for a major battle to stop renewal.

That includes a states-based campaign to pressure U.S.

lawmakers who favor renewing fast track, said Joel Barkin, executive director of the Progressives States Network, which lobbies states on economic issues.

''We've been communicating with a number of legislators from states all over the country about offering similar resolutions.

... Now is the time for states to be sending a message to their congressional delegations about ... not giving the president the authority to ram bad trade deals down our throats,'' Barkin said.

Bush needs at least a short-term extension to finish the Doha round of world trade talks, which are showing signs of a possible breakthrough after being stalled on contentious agricultural issues for five years.

As a first step toward winning renewal of trade promotion authority, US Trade Representative Susan Schwab has been meeting with Democratic and Republican lawmakers to try to reach a new agreement on how to handle labor and environmental provisions in trade agreements.

Reuters PDM VP1102