Bush stresses importance of free trade in creating jobs

UNDETERRED by protesters who have dogged him at every stop on his five-nation Latin American trip, US President George W Bush yesterday tried to convince Guatemala’s residents that the United States is a compassionate nation.

It’s the same message he delivered earlier at stops in Brazil, Uruguay and Colombia.

Heaving crates of lettuce onto a loading dock, Mr Bush also addressed free trade, a deal he had trouble pushing through Congress.

“Free trade is important to a lot of people,” Mr Bush said after helping move cartons of lettuce at Labradores Mayas, a thriving vegetable packing station in Chirijuyu not far from here. “It’s a gateway. It creates jobs in America as it created jobs here.”

His travels also serve as a counterweight to Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, who has been on his own parallel tour of Latin America. Mr Chavez has been pumping his nation’s oil profits into social programmes across the region to further the leftward political shift he’s leading in the United States’ backyard.

The vegetable packing station was started in the early 1990s by an indigenous farmer named Mariano Canu. The association of 66 small farming families produces 95,000 heads of lettuce a week that are sold in Guatemala, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Honduras. It is one of the major vegetable suppliers for Wal-Mart Stores Inc’s Central American supermarkets.

It has received $350,000 (€265,370) in US assistance since 2003 and is taking advantage of eased trade restrictions under the US-Central America Free Trade Agreement.

Congress narrowly passed the trade pact last year and Mr Bush wants lawmakers to approve of three similar ones with Colombia, Panama and Peru. With the Congress now in Democratic hands, the president acknowledges that these are “tough votes”, but argues that free trade and democratic reforms can help lift Latin Americans from poverty.