Bush Suspends Bolivia's Participation in ATPDEA Trade Program

For Thanksgiving this year President Bush took to the White House lawn to pardon a turkey (a presidential tradition). Meanwhile, back inside the White House pressroom, the administration was announcing that it was turning another turkey into U.S. foreign policy – formally implementing the administration's threat to remove Bolivia from the Andean Trade Preferences Program (ATPDEA). The move could destroy as many as 20,000 jobs in Bolivia, just as the global economic crisis is driving up unemployment to levels not seen in decades.

To see a video produced by The Democracy Center last month featuring interviews with three workers whose jobs are on the line, see here. The video was also shown at the Trade Representative's public hearing on the Bush decree.

In a statement, Mr. Bush's press secreatry declared:

President Bush signed a proclamation that suspends the designation of Bolivia as a beneficiary country under the Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA) and the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act (ATPDEA). The suspension, which takes effect on December 15, 2008, is the result of Bolivia's failure to cooperate with the United States on counternarcotics efforts, which is one criterion for ATPA and ATPDEA eligibility. If Bolivia were to improve its performance under the ATPA and ATPDEA programs' criteria, the President would have the discretion to issue a proclamation to redesignate Bolivia as a beneficiary country.

Seeking to Tie President Obama's Hands?

There is certainly a reasonable debate to be had about Bolivia's current anti-drug efforts, and the Bolivian government has expressed a willingness to have it. But in reality the Bush announcement looks mostly like a political effort to tie the hands of his successor on an issue fraught with politics.

Members of Congress, on both sides of the aisle, have raised questions about President Morales' commitment to deal with the portion of Bolivia's coca crop that eventually ends up as part of the illegal drug trade. To be clear, a strong portion of Bolivia's coca goes for traditional uses such as chewing, and to legitimate industrial uses such as tea. But not all of it does and a good deal of Bolivian coca does feed the illegal drug trade, though primarily headed toward Brazil and Argentina, not the U.S. (which imports its cocaine primarily from U.S. ally Colombia).

That concern, tied to the ATPDEA agreement, was translated in October into a much more sensible approach, and a bipartisan one – legislation that renewed Bolivia's participation in ATPDEA for six months (instead of the year granted to other nations), pending a review by the incoming administration. That approach made sense at a variety of levels. It was bipartisan and it left the policy choice to the new president as part of a new political approach to the region. This is very different than putting that policy decision in the hands of a lame-duck President whose deep unpopularity in the region is rivaled only by his deep unpopularity at home.

The bipartisan Congressional approach also maximized the leverage that U.S. policy makers might have on Bolivia anti-drug efforts. The one issue in Bolivia/U.S. relations that the Morales government has worked hard is the country's continued participation in those trade preferences, a theme I heard over and over again in my recent meetings with both Bolivian and U.S. policy makers. The Bush executive decree only pushes Bolivia father away from being influenced by Washington, as it seeks to replace U.S. markets for those textiles and other products.

And an administration headed by a Harvard MBA might at least have enough common sense to know that markets broken are not so easily put back together, as U.S. suppliers look elsewhere.

All this will put the incoming Obama administration in the awkward position of having to reverse the Bush decree just to put its policy in alignment with Republicans and Democrats in Congress, a move it should make quickly nonetheless. President Obama will have some strong political cover if he does make such a move, including from the senior Republican in the Senate on foreign policy issues, Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana. President Morales met with Lugar last week in Washington, after which the former chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee announced:

The United States regrets any perception that it has been disrespectful, insensitive, or engaged in any improper activities that would disregard the legitimacy of the current Bolivian government or its sovereignty. We hope to renew our relationship with Bolivia, and to develop a rapport grounded on respect and transparency. In this regard, after appropriate and constructive official contacts, I hope that we will have a U.S. Ambassador in La Paz soon, and that we will look forward to having a Bolivian Ambassador here in Washington, D.C.

Lifting the suspension on the ATPDEA with Bolivia will strengthen the growing political and economic relationship between our nations and help bring new jobs and good will to the region.

In effect, the Bush administration's final decision on Bolivia and ATPDEA this week is the equivalent of Mr. Bush leaving a plate of stale turkey leftovers in the White House refrigerator, with a note encouraging the new occupant to eat up. President Obama will be far better off dumping the unwelcome gift in the trash and starting over fresh with Bolivia. There is plenty of eagerness by the Morales government to do so, and support on Capitol Hill as well.

President Bush's Plan to Put 20,000 Bolivians Out of Work

For a month, since the U.S. and Bolivia took turns expelling one another's ambassadors (Bolivia went first), the diplomatic war between Washington and La Paz has continued unabated.

Now President Bush, in his efforts to strike out against Bolivian President Evo Morales, has decided to take economic hostages. Last month, and again in Washington yesterday, Mr. Bush declared his intention to destroy the jobs of more than 20,000 innocent Bolivian workers, by axing Bolivia out of a trade plan originally developed under his father. To do so would be a mistake – morally, diplomatically and economically.

Some Background

Nearly two decades ago, under the first President Bush, the U.S. began the Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPDEA). That program offers Bolivia and a handful of other Latin American nations reduced U.S. tarriffs, allowing them to develop new industries and jobs exporting products such as textiles and handmade furniture. For the U.S., the aim is to create opportunities for employment as an to alternative to growing coca for the illegal drug market.

In September, as part of the Bush administration's diplomatic battles with Bolivian President Evo Morales, President Bush announced that he will use his executive authority eliminate Bolivia's participation in those trade preferences.

The actual victims of President Bush’s move, however, won't be President Morales, but women and men who eke out modest livings as weavers, jewelry-makers and carpenters, creating products for U.S. markets. The U.S. Congress knows that, and just two weeks ago approved a six-month extension for Bolivia. But yesterday in Washington President Bush repeated his intent to sidestep Congress and use his powers to cut Bolivian workers out of the program.

Listen to the Voices of the People who Will be Affected by Bush's Plan

We profiled some of these workers for our new book, Dignity and Defiance, and after President Bush’s announcement last month we traveled out across Bolivia to ask them how his threat would affect their lives.

Today we have posted a five-minute video of their own words here on the Blog. Take a moment now and hear what they have to say by clicking on the screen above.

The Democracy Center also demanded and won the right to have their video testimony from Bolivia played next week in Washington when the Bush administation holds the public hearing required by law before he implements his plan. Administration officials told us that this will be the first time that video testimony like this has been played in such a proceeding.

On October 23 in Washington, those officials will hear directly from people like Joaquín Aquino, a carpenter in his 50s who hand-makes furniture for the U.S. market and Natalia Alanoca Condori, a 28-year-old mother who makes clothing sold in American stores. These are the people, along with thousands others like them, who will be the real victims of President Bush's actions against Bolivia.

What You Can Do to Help

We have an opportunity and an obligation to these workers to take action and help stop President Bush's plan. Here are three simple ways that you can help:

1. Share this request for action with others

All across the United States there are people and organizations that care about making U.S. policy in Latin America more just. Help us spread the word about the need to act on this now, by forwarding this Blog post to others.

2. Sign the Democracy Center's Online Petition

You can directly add your voice to the campaign to stop President Bush's threat against Bolivian workers. In less than sixty seconds right now you can add your name to an online petition that the Democracy Center will be submitting as part of the formal public record against Bush's anti-Bolivia policy. Sign that petition here. If your organization wants to join the petition please send us an email telling us so at: Bolivia@democracyctr.org.

We need your petition endorsements no later than midnight October 30.

3. Submit Formal Comments to the Bush Administration

If you or your organization want to do more, federal law guarantees the right to submit formal comments to the Bush administration's Trade Representative. To do that you must submit your comments by e-mail no later than 5pm on October 31. Those comments must be sent in the form of an attachment and must include the subject line, “Review of Bolivia’s Designation as a Beneficiary Country Under the ATPA and ATPDEA.” The address is: FR0812@ustr.eop.gov. You must also include in the attachment a cover letter with your name, address, telephone number and e-mail address.

Even if we can't make President Bush back down on his plan to put Bolivians out of work, taking action now helps build the case for Congress and the new President to reverse it. Those leaders need to see that people in the U.S. care about this issue.

Raising Up Voices from Latin America

President Bush's move against the Bolivian people is just one more example of how we, as citizens, need to not only change leaders but also change the political winds that drive U.S. policy toward Latin America. To help do that the Democracy Center is launching a new campaign – Voices from Latin America.

Voices from Latin America marries new technology and old-fashioned organizing to build a bridge between citizens in the U.S. and Latin America. It is a platform from which we can work together to help educate one another and take joint action, like the one we are starting today on Bush's assault on Bolivian workers. On the website you will find:

Briefing papers (in English and Spanish) on some of the main issues in U.S./Latin America relations, on topics such as trade, the 'U.S. war on drugs', and immigration.

Video testimonies from across the region in which people tell how U.S. policy affects their lives and their nations.

How to get involved, and real examples from people who have.

As citizens we have to be educated and involved in U.S foreign policy in ways that we never have before. That includes making sure that the people in other countries who are so affected by what the U.S. does have their voices heard in the U.S. Help us do that by visiting the Voices from Latin America web site here.