WASHINGTON (AFP) — The Democratic-led US House of Representatives delayed a vote on a free trade pact with Colombia Thursday, in a snub to President George W. Bush fraught with 2008 election implications.
The House voted 224-195 to change a rule requiring it to vote on final passage of the controversial deal within 60 legislative days, after the bill was sent to Congress by Bush on Tuesday.
The delay effectively means the House stopped a 90-day clock under which the full Congress was required to act, and many observers believe the pact will not now get a vote before November's presidential and congressional elections.
Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, battling for the Democratic presidential nomination, had opposed the deal, fearing a backlash from blue-collar voters in battleground states where free trade is blamed for job losses.
The House move means the two rivals are now unlikely to have to cast a vote on the bill in the Senate before one of them wins the nomination or before the general election.
Bush criticized the delay as "damaging to our economy, our national security, and our relations with an important ally," and accused Democratic House speaker Nancy Pelosi of deliberately killing the deal for political gain.
"Rather than supporting the opening of markets for our farmers and manufacturers, Democratic congressional leaders instead listened to narrow special interests and followed an isolationist path," he said in a statement.
"This will weaken our nation's ability to negotiate fair trade agreements."
The president had ramped up pressure on Congress on Tuesday to pass the deal, which he said was vital to US national security interests in Latin America.
House Republican minority leader John Boehner also attacked the delay, labeling it "a precipitous step in the wrong direction."
"We're sending a very bad message to our partners around the world all in the name of election year politics," he said. "I think that it's regrettable. It's despicable."
But Change to Win, a movement of six US trade unions and seven million workers, welcomed the House's move, after campaigning against the deal over numerous murders of trade unionists in Colombia.
"Colombia needs years, not months, to ensure the eradication of union killings and impunity that have plagued that country for decades," it said in a statement.
"Trade isn't 'free' when thousands are killed for standing up for their rights in the workplace."
On Monday, Bush praised Colombia's conservative president, Alvaro Uribe, for his efforts to address concerns raised by Democrats by taking steps to reduce violence against trade unions and demobilize right-wing paramilitary fighters.
He said Uribe faces pressure from the Marxist rebel group known as FARC and his anti-American neighbor, Venezuela's leftist president Hugo Chavez.
The House's move on Thursday suspended part of the Trade Act of 1974, that lays out "fast-track" negotiating powers which bar any amendments to trade deals negotiated by the president.
The Senate is prohibited from taking any action on the bill until it has passed the House.
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