Bush To Tackle Border Delays, Security In Canada-Mexico Talks

All three North American leaders head parties lacking legislative majorities, constraining their agendas to administrative matters such as easing regulatory hurdles and coordinating responses to emergencies. ``They are going to set their sights pretty low,'' said James Jones, a former U.S. ambassador to Mexico who's now the co-chairman and chief executive of Manatt Jones Global Strategies, a Washington firm that advises companies seeking to expand into Latin America. The talks come amid a swelling protectionist tide in the Democratic-controlled Congress that has delayed consideration of four new free-trade agreements. Lawmakers also allowed Bush's authority to negotiate trade pacts that Congress can't amend to expire at the end of June without prospect of renewal. Nafta Criticism The leading Democratic presidential contenders, meanwhile, have taken aim at the North American Free Trade Agreement, which last year helped generate about $880 billion of trade among the three countries. Illinois Senator Barack Obama and former North Carolina Senator John Edwards pledged during an Aug. 8 candidates' debate to revise the 13-year-old accord if elected. Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton, the New York senator whose husband, Bill Clinton, pushed Nafta through Congress when he was president, said the U.S. is hurt by the way the pact has been implemented. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid=a8L.zw7K9KM8&refer=canada

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