WASHINGTON — The Senate passed the U.S.-Oman Free Trade Agreement on Tuesday for a second time, by a vote of 63-31, despite opposition from Democrats about the pact’s labor enforcement standards and working conditions in the Middle Eastern country.
Senators were forced to vote twice on the bill because all revenue-generating legislation must originate in the House. The Senate voted on the free trade pact at the end of June and passed it, 60 to 34, before the House voted on the bill, because Republican leaders were trying to generate momentum for it in the generally trade-friendlier Senate.
Republicans argued the deal grants the U.S. some of its broadest duty free market access ever and establishes a strong standard for a Middle East Free Trade Area, a top Bush administration objective.
During floor debate Tuesday, Democratic opponents focused on what they see as the pact’s inadequate labor standards, the administration’s trade policies, the growing trade deficit in goods and services that hit $717 billion last year, and mounting industry job losses.
You May Also Like
Oman is a small apparel producer, exporting $53.5 million in apparel products to the U.S. last year, but importers support it because some do business there and the FTA with Oman is part of an effort by the Bush administration to create a Middle East Free Trade Area by 2013.
The U.S. textile industry opposed the pact because it allows apparel manufacturers in Oman to use 50 million square meters equivalent of cotton and man-made fiber fabric from anywhere in the world in the assembly of clothing and still receive duty free benefits on goods entering the U.S. In 2004, Oman shipped 59.4 million SMEs in apparel to the U.S., but last year that figure fell to 16.4 million SMEs.