Bush seeks to help Colombia trade vote-official

By Doug Palmer

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration is prepared to work closely with Democrats to expand a federal program to help workers who have lost jobs due to international trade in the hopes of winning approval of a free-trade deal with Colombia, a top U.S. trade official said on Thursday.

"I think the congressional leadership understands that the president is committed to working closely with them to address their concerns with the current program," Deputy U.S. Trade Representative John Veroneau told Reuters reporters in an interview.

But he declined to say whether the White House would accept Democratic proposals to expand the Trade Adjustment Assistance program to service industry and public sector employees, as was included in bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives.

"It's not my place as Deputy USTR to speak to the administration's position on a particular TAA (trade adjustment assistance) program," Veroneau said, adding that the White House was leading the negotiations with Congress on that.

However, U.S. President George W. Bush "has made clear he is open to ways to expand the program in areas where he thinks it would benefit workers," he said.

The Bush administration is fighting an uphill battle to win approval of a free-trade deal with Colombia that is strongly opposed by U.S. labor groups, and plans to send the agreement to Congress soon for a vote.

Veroneau closely linked TAA reform and the Colombia trade deal, but stopped short of saying White House support for one depended on approval of the other.

"The White House position has been that both the Colombia FTA is important and TAA reauthorization is important and we should do both as soon as possible," Veroneau said.  Continued...