Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, August 27, 1993 TAG: 9308270080
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A6 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
At a news conference Thursday, Buchanan criticized fellow Republicans, specifically former Housing Secretary Jack Kemp and Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole of Kansas, for their support of the agreement. It was negotiated by the Bush administration and is being sent to Congress by President Clinton.
Dole, Kemp and Buchanan are possible rivals for the GOP presidential nomination in 1996.
Buchanan said the pact will set up a giant managed trade zone that will diminish North American trade with other parts of the world and subject U.S. consumers and businesses to the authority of a "trinational bureaucracy" that will be created to enforce the treaty.
"It's an insider's deal for the leveraged buyout of American liberty," he said.
Buchanan, a television commentator and newspaper columnist who challenged George Bush for the 1992 GOP presidential nomination, said he and other conservatives would work to "knock down the falsehood, the myth, that all conservatives are aligned behind NAFTA."
He said Republicans are allowing billionaire Ross Perot, an independent presidential candidate in 1992, to capitalize on the issue with his vigorous opposition to the treaty.
Buchanan said Perot "is speaking as an America-first patriot on this issue." Buchanan said Kemp and Dole were making a mistake by supporting the treaty.
Dole is heading a delegation of Republican lawmakers traveling to Texas and Mexico next week to promote the agreement, Dole's office announced Thursday.
Joining Dole on the two-day trip that begins Sunday will be Sens. Phil Gramm of Texas, Orrin Hatch of Utah, John McCain of Arizona and Judd Gregg of New Hampshire and Rep. Henry Bonilla of Texas. The group will meet with Mexican President Carlos Salinas.
Buchanan hopes to peel away Clinton's Republican support, which is crucial because many liberal Democrats - environmentalists and labor groups - also oppose the treaty, fearing it will encourage American businesses to relocate their production facilities in lower-wage Mexico. Jackson has quipped, "NAFTA is a shafta."
The trade agreement is being sold by the administration as creating the world's largest free trade zone, from the Yukon to the Yucatan. By increasing trade among the United States, Mexico and Canada, it will help the economies of all three nations, the administration contends.
Buchanan also complained about provisions in the treaty that would require the expenditure of U.S. funds to clean up pollution along the U.S.-Mexican border. Instead, Buchanan said, Clinton should get tough with Mexico and force it to pay for the cleanup itself.
by CNB