Departing U.S. President George W. Bush will continue pushing the free
trade pact with Colombia until his term ends, White House spokeswoman
Dana Perino said Tuesday.
Bush will take advantage of the upcoming G20 summit in Washington Saturday to warn about the consequences of protectionism, his spokeswoman said.
Protectionism and isolationism “could further weaken our economy, which is what Bush has been fighting. When he receives the G20 leaders here this weekend he will talk much about that,”Perino said.
Even though Bush is aware the time is not here for an approval of the North American Free Trade Agreement with Colombia he will continue discussing it with Congress.
Earlier Tuesday, the chief lobbyist for the United Auto Workers said
that the union would strongly oppose any political deal involving the
passage of a free-trade agreement with
to U.S. auto makers.
the New York Times that
aid to the auto industry if Democrats dropped their opposition to a pending
denied those reports Tuesday, telling reporters “there was no linkage” between
aid to auto makers and the free-trade pact expressed by Bush at a meeting Monday
with President-elect Barack Obama.