Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, October 29, 1993 TAG: 9310290179
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
American businesses are spending millions to promote the North American Free Trade Agreement. But Republican leaders say they've failed to produce the grass-roots support that could save the pact.
"I'd give them pathetic grades," said House Republican Whip Newt Gingrich, R-Ga. "It's been dreadful," agreed Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., leader of his party's pro-NAFTA forces.
Despite all the energy and money going into advertising, lobbying, town meetings and other activities, "there's no product. The line is empty so far," said former Rep. Bill Frenzel of Minnesota, President Clinton's Republican lobbyist for the agreement.
The missing "product" is a surge of grass-roots sentiment to counter heavy labor and populist opposition threatening the pact, which would phase out trade barriers with Canada and Mexico.
In a switch from the usual political order, the three Republican NAFTA champions were almost warm toward Clinton while sharply criticizing the business community's performance on its paramount issue this fall.
As lobbyists scribbled notes Wednesday at a Capitol Hill breakfast, they said supportive chief executives are not telling their employees about the increased exports and other benefits they expect from NAFTA.
Consequently, the GOP speakers contended, few people are contacting their representatives with nice things to say. With a vote scheduled Nov. 17 and the House odds at about 50-50, that silence could be pivotal.
Gingrich cited a CEO who backs the trade pact, but 70 of his employees wrote letters against it.
He also contended there are congressional districts in which 50,000 people work for pro-NAFTA companies "and not one of them has picked up the phone" to express support.
One pro-NAFTA group disseminated postcards marked to be returned to the Senate, Frenzel said. "Not smart," he sighed, when the pact is safe there but needs all the help it can get in the House.
Ken Cole, president of a 3,400-member coalition called USA-NAFTA, said grass-roots activity is accelerating and discussions with 200 lawmakers suggest that's being felt on the Hill.
He predicted members will be hearing even more from supportive constituents as the vote approaches.
But Cole conceded business could improve on its grass-roots performance and said he has encouraged Gingrich and others to do whatever is necessary to light a fire under the troops.
Willard Workman, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's vice president for international policy, said Kolbe recently praised his group's outreach activities. "Maybe he's talking to a different segment of the business community," he said.
The chamber has focused on relatively small businesses in 154 districts where House members are undecided. Clinton is slated to participate in a satellite town meeting Monday with chamber members at 200 sites across the country.
Business lobbyists say they were unable to launch the sales drive until side agreements on workers and the environment were completed in August. That was months after labor had begun a $4 million fight to kill what it views as a job-loser and Ross Perot had started stirring the populist pot with anti-NAFTA rallies and rhetoric.
by CNB