| Show I I COMMENTARY The Salt Lake Tribune A29 Sunday November 14 1993 'No on NAFTA Would Shake Global Confidence in American Leadership TEl WASEILNGTON POST WASHLNGTON — The critics of NAFTA have a better case than the one 1 1 ) government of Carlos Salinas de Gortari and his successor who will be chosen next year to continue liberalizing moves that will expand the economy of our biggest neighbor and assure the United States of unfettered access to its expanding consumer market In a decade or less NAFTA will clearly be seen as a boon to 'both nations But if President Clinton is to rally the votes be needs to pass NAFTA Wednesday in the House of Representatives he must convince doubtful Democrats that something larger than economic calculus is at stake Truly it is Start with the simple fact that in the since this nation became the eccnomic powerhouse of the world no president has seen a major trade agreement to which be affixed his signature rejected by Congress II NAFTA is voted down it will literally be a defeat of historic proportions For a president with a shaky election mandate and a weak political base it would reduce his international standing to a point unparalleled since Richard Nixon was careening toward resignation The repudiation would be heightened ROSS Perot presented in his televised debate with Vice President Gore But it is not a compelling enough argument to defeat the free trade agreement with Mexico and Canada and risk the consequences here and around the world The valid claim that the opponents of NAFI1A— several of whom I interviewed last week — can make is that the agreement is weaker in its labor provisions than it is in its protection of services in- ' vestment and intellectual property rights An ideal treaty would probably d put more pressure on Mexico's economy to increase workers' pay and their share of what is expected to be a bigger economic pie That would decrease incentives for US firms to shift production from the United States and would minimize the downward pressure on US wages in e skill industries But that argument loses its plausibility well short of Perot's "giant sucking sound" The unchallenged fact is that a e agreement Will encourage the half-centur- state-directe- lower-- labor-intensiv- free-trad- nit 1David Broder 1 - I-- x - ' A I anti-NAFT- A a t liia by the fact that it came at the hands of his own party As nearly as I can judge the House Republican leadership will probably be able to produce 120 votes of its membership) for NAFTA unless it is obvious on Wednesday morning that the agreement would be defeated anyway That would leave Clinton to round up 100 NAFTA suppoilers from the 258 House Democrats If he cannot do that foreign ambassadors would be fully justified in cabling their capitals that the governing party in the United States has taken a decisive step away from its historic liberal trade position and has demonstrated a mere 10 months into Clinton's term that it lacks confidence in his leadership (two-thir- y undercut by a loss on still more serious is the likely effect of a NAFTA defeat on prospects for successfully concluding the tortuous effort to reduce worldwide trade and tariff barriers in the GAIT Uruguay Round negotiations I am no expert on GATT but listen to what Robert B Zoellick a high official of the Bush White House and State Department (and a Republican who has no love for Clinton) told me about the link between NAFTA and the GATT talks: "The message will be that we have a weak president who can't drive a deal and a Democratic Party that has gone At the exact moment protectionist when you need the United States to play a catalytic role we would be taken out of the game" "There are probably only two weeks worth of GATT negotiations left but it's for the crown jewels If NAFTA goes down the world will think we've lost our marbles And it will know it can't count on this administration" The stakes are very high and so is the responsibility on each member of the House who is contemplating voting no y 1 -- l rum Late as he was in coming to the NAFTA battle Clinton has worked assiduously to prevent such a repudiation His failure would echo around the world The first — and most violent — repercussions would probably be felt next door in Mexico Professor Harley Shaiken of the University of California-Berkelea guru to several of the legislators with whom I have met conceded in an interview that NAFTA's defeat would cause "an immediate political shock in Mexico and some speculative roiling in the markets" But he says that there would be no long-terdamage to the relationship Others are far less sanguine warning that NAFTA's rejection would embarrass the Salinas government threaten a run on the Mexican peso and likely force a return to the very same cheap-labo- r protectionist policies which characterized Mexico and contributed to the southward flight of American jobs But that is just the beginning of what would be in store Clinton will meet the day after the House vote with the leaders of the Pacific nations for discussions on the economic and military future of that region His bargaining position would be ds pre-Salin- L- ent Lis er at ly It VV MICA )e we P- - - ti2 11:A tilti al '' Nt-- r ( e i - f - m '5 1 - I it - 1- ' al i - Tribune Readers' Opinions - 474it 7 Your criticism of Rep Frank Pignanelli for demanding an investigation "of all alleged abuses of state property for church and O° 12" P partisan purposes" (Tribune ci Nhiskt‘v i ‘ IV° ' 44 )r - Missed the Point c4k''''14'RAt i - jeomud41160 0- )drilip Nik re The Public Fonlin 1t)e A070 ::41::4waprzti- s 1 41102S1f i1 - ‘ - Nlk 41 st Nov 3) was completely beside the point Rep Pignanelli neither stated nor did he imply that Rep Grant Protzman's use of government stationery and staff to invite the governor to speak at a church meeting was a "minor incident" Rather he merely pointed out that such incidents are commonplace and only on the single occasion when a Democrat is involved does our Republican-dominateLegislature suddenly feel the need to tout its supposed ethical values Such hypocrisy should not be tolerated and Rep Pigrnanelli was right to protest Let the investigation begin! : 4 )4 - 1: $ - t- 4- - - tivlq Octotikst) e KERIngoli EtRoNZE rit1ll3LIVIEV - i 10--- 7-- titZ : 7E1E5 -- --z--- THOMAS N THOMPSON Salt Lake City Range Care: It's Aot a New Concept J Lyon FOR THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE As Utalms and Westerners we take special note of the opposition of Utah Sens Orrin Hatch and Robert Bennett to grazing policy reforms We are struck by Sen Hatch's statement "The Old West is still alive The Old West is still there And a lot of us belong to it" We agree But perhaps he has not looked back far enough into the Old West — back to Oct 7 1865 for example when Mormon Apostle Orson Hyde speaking at General Conference in Salt Lake City had this to say: 1 "There is a good deal of ambition among our people to cultivate a great quantity of ground the result of which is that we cultivate our lands poorly in comparison to what we would if we were contented with a smaller area and would confine our labors to it We have found some difficulty with regard to water and complaints have been made about a scarcity of water to the amount of land He intended should be cultivated I do not think that these things He under:are passed over unnoticed by Him ‘ stands perfectly well what the elements are capable of producing and how many of His people may be established here or there with profit and with advantage i "1 find the longer we live in these valleys that the range is becoming more and more destitute of grass the grass is not only eaten up by the great amount of stock that feed upon it but they tramp it out by the very roots and where the grass once grew luxurient: ly there is now nothing but the desert weed and hardly a spear of grass is to be seen "Between here and the mouth of Emigration kanyon when our brethren the Pioneers first landed here in '47 there was an abundance of grass over all those benches they were covered with it like a mead ow There is now nothing but the desert weed the and such like plants that make sage the rabbit-bus- e at Terry Tempest Williams is the Utah Museum of Natural History Thomas J Lyon is a professor of English at Utah State naturalist-hiresidenc- IL h - 1 LOS ANGELES TIMES SYNDICATE WASHINGTON — It wasn't Evander Holyfield vs Riddick Bowe and it didn't quite descend into slapstick comedy (though it got close) but the televised "debate" between Vice President Al Gore : and Ross Perot not only failed to deliver a knockout punch for either contender at :: times it resembled a food fight Perot's wisecracks and complete lack of respect for the vice president damaged t whatever merit his arguments may have had That's always a danger in debate — that demeanor and tactics overshadow the substance of the argument Perot has a thing about not being interrupted as if he were God attempting to deliver the ' Ten Economic Commandments and the people to whom he is delivering them cut him off before he can get through the list I With Perot we see not only that money t ' can't buy happiness It also doesn't buy manners igood the NAFTA debate many people are — i 4 a 1 L ito 0400014n 61 124114'120 e::-- numbers Information other than your name will be kept confidential Preference is given to original letters of 300 words or less that are typewritten and permit publicaHon of the writer's true name (Names may be withheld for good reason) All letters are subject to editing Mail to Public Forum The Salt Lake Tribune PO Box 867 Salt Lake City Utah 84110 good-fait- h r ' Rep Karen Shepherd's statement that she was "perplexed and shocked the (mining industry) has chosen not to participate as a good-fait-h partner in much needed reform" is about as far from the truth as one could be The industry recognizes and has made the large concessions and supports many reforms The hard rock mining industry has indicated that it would pay a royalty on its profits which could be earmarked for abandoned mine reclamation It has proposed paying fair market value for surface rights to counter the occasionally abused patent process The industry has given full support to and is by the Clean Air Act Clean Water Act Endangered Species Act and many other pieces of curative legislation In Ms Shepherd's statement that there are 560000 abandoned mine sites nationally she fails to point out that less than of 1 percent of these are considered to be pollution sources In fact less than of 1 percent of all federal public lands have been disturbed by mining and when one compares how much land in the United States has been developed for cities towns airports roads etc (775 million acres) versus the acreage disturbed by mining (6 million acres) the true extent of her exaggeration becomes apparent well-regulat- one-tent- h one-tent- h ROBERT W SCHAFER Park City much-neede- d reform" double-- spaced I was part of a group of mining professionals who visited legislators including Ms Shepherd's office in Washington DC last Mining Attack Errs Your Nov 2 front-pag- e article "Mining Law From Days of Ore Leaves Scars in Utah" is so biased even your reporter admits it was incomplete First regarding the supposed "pollution" from the Wasatch mine both minerals iron and manganese found in the water are critical to human health and are found in all vitaminmineral supplements The concentrations at the mine mouth exceed drink- ing water standards only in the same way that putting a vitamin-minersupplement tablet in a bucket of water would cause it to exceed drinking water standards By the time the small amount of water from the mine reaches Big Cottonwood Creek its concentration is so low that it is well within safety guidelines The "cloudy colored rainbow" is nothing more than iron oxide more commonly known as "rust" Only the Sierra Club would try to pass off rust as a health hazard The truth is that Brighton Alta Park City Silver Fork Solitude and Snowbird all get their drinking water from old mine tunnels It is unfortunate that the Sierra Club knowingly passes off 100- year-olmining methods that have since been banned as a reason to repeal a law (the Mining Law of 1872) that has been shown to work Other countries such as Canada and Mexico that adopted the proposed "reforms" have since repealed them finding them unworkable The allegation that the 1872 laws allow miners to pollute the environment is blatantly false The 1872 law intended only to describe mine ownership has been amended over 50 times to keep it current with all other environmental laws al d ERIC JAMESON Salt Lake City month The message that the mining industry brought to Washington was that of compromise The 8 percent gross royalty which Ms Shepherd supported does not represent a compromise because most of the mines operating on federal land could not make a profit at that rate Ms Shepherd's staff insisted that it was not her intention to stop mining on federal lands However her recent vote indicates that is not the case An important aspect of her position is that royalties from mining will provide funding for the billion cleanup" "$30 billion-57- 0 of abandoned mines Yet there will be few mines and very little revenue for the cleanup if an 8 percent gross royalty is imposed This position also neglects that there is still demand for raw materials which increases the market for foreign metals some of which are produced in environmentally sensitive areas JAMES P ROBINSON Salt Lake City Comics Diversity When I first saw the "Tigrillo" strip in The Tribune I thought it e was a special feature When I realized it was a regular part of the comics I was delighted Here I thought was an easy opportunity to expand the horizons of my life by learning another language through the comic one-tim- strip Then along comes Ken Engstrom (Forum Nov 7) The Tribune's publication of "Tigrillo" has disappointed and offended him I'm sorry that "Tigrillo" has offended Ken but there actually are people "out there" who embrace the idea that the world is round that there is cultural diversity and that opportunity exists for knowledge beyond the realm of the Wasatch Front Thank goodness The Tribune has the foresight to acknowledge this WAYNE BELKA Salt Lake City ot Only Can't Buy Happiness It Can't Buy Manners For Perot Money ' Mining' Exaggeration very poor feed for stock Being cut short of our range in the way we have been and accumulating stock as we are we have nothing to feed them with in the winter and they perish There is no profit in this neither is it pleasing in the sight of God our Heavenly Father that we should continue a course of life like unto this "Now I speak of these things my brethren not because I think that they are the most edifying to you but I speak of them because I consider that a temporal salvation is as important as a spiritual one "How much more agreeable is life when everything is in order and good regulation is maintained in and around our homes and cities This is what I have endeavored in my weak way to instill into the minds of the Saints In some instances I have been successful and where men have adopted the course I have suggested they have invariably borne testimony in its favor I would rather have half a dozen cows in the winter and have them well taken care of than to have twenty and have fourteen of them die for want of feed and proper attention which would leave me only six I would rather only have the six to begin with then I would not have the mortification of seeing so many suffer and die In the present condition of the ranges we cannot indulge in the hope of raising such large herds of stock as we have done heretofore but we have got to keep about what will serve us and take care of them well then we can enjoy ourselves and we are not the authors of misery to any part of creation" We urge Utah's senators to follow the counsel of our elders Grazing reform is not a new or radical idea born out of a liberal administration but rather a conservative and prudent land ethic recognized by our ancestors in their desire for sustainable By Terry Tempest Williams and Thomas I was surprised and dismayed to read Karen Shepherd's comments on mining law reform in the Nov 5 Salt Lake Tribune She said she was "perplexed and shocked that the (mining industry) has chosen not to participate as a partner in When submitting letters to the Public Forum please include your full name signature address and daytime telephone d e -- Dismayed by Shepherd Where to Write confused and calling Gore a liar did nothing to advance Perot's position Principled people have taken different sides on the issue and Perot would have been smarter to acknowledge that fact At one point Perot said to Gore "Are you going to listen? Work on it" It may have been the lowest moment of the evening among many lows for Perot lie was so busy playing the prophet without honor in his own country that he made no effective defense of his position Gore made the most substantive points though I would have rather seen an economist take on Perot who seems to think that just because he is a billionaire it makes him an expert in how countries can make money One of Gore's better moments was when he accused Perot of wanting to retreat into isolationism the vice president could have bolstered that with a little history noting the world wars that resulted when twice before in this century the United States tried to Isolate Itself A olk OM $ 4 tut to EMI it Cal Thomas 'I I 4 L Perot continues to play on the distrust most Americans have of their government and the failure of its leaders to live up to their promises He sounded as if he were still campaigning for president when he started listing the Clinton administration's broken promises most notably on not taxing the middle class Sounding as if he were still campaigning too Gore countered that those increased taxes were only "on the rich" a claim that lost whatever credibility it bad shprtly after Jan 20 The best exchange came when Perot charged that government forecasts are rarely right He said the administration's prediction for improved trade relations more jobs and greater prosperity for Mexico and the United States if NAFTA wins congressional approval was just as wrong as other forecasts Gore countered that Perot had been wrong about a number of his own forecasts including how many Americans would die if the United States went to war against Iraq three years ago and his prediction that 100 banks would fail costing taxpayers billions of dollars Shortly after that Perot became nasty What this "debate" lacked was a knockout punch There was no memorable line like "There you go again" (Ronald Reagan vs Jimmy Carter) or "You're no John F Kennedy" (Lloyd Bentsen vs Dan Quayle) or even "Poland is not dominated by communism" (Gerald Ford vs Jimmy Carter) In the television age that's too bad because it is often the sound bite that defines an issue for many people Still this was the closest we ever came to the wonderful British tradition of holding government officials accountable in public And it sure beat the staged "town hall" meetings that President Clinton has been using to promote various policies The real debate takes place this weekend as members of Congress visit their districts As many as 30 representatives have not declared how they will vote on NAFTA and what they hear from their constituents (and lobbyists for both sides) will determine the fate of the agreement It is President Clinton who stands to lose the most if NAFTA is defeated given that Democrats hold the White House and majorities in the House and Senate If NAFTA goes down Clinton already suffering from credibility damage in both foreign and domestic policy will look even weaker at a time when the biggest Issue of all health care — is about to be debated It14!44444411 0a10410t0-06t49-wi4?A4pLm- v 1 I |
