The North American Free Trade agreement easily survived an eleventh-hour Senate challenge Friday night, and supporters pressed for swift final approval. An Associated Press survey showed a majority behind the plan to establish the world's largest free trade zone.
On a vote of 73-26, the Senate turned back a bid by Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, to open NAFTA to changes - a move that supporters described as a "killer" that would have doomed the accord to defeat.After an arduous battle, the House voted 234-200 on Wednesday night in favor of the legislation, which would unite the United States, Mexico and Canada into a vast tariff-free region. Senate passage was expected either Saturday or early next week and would send the measure to President Clinton, handing him one of the sweetest triumphs of his young administration.
NAFTA will "benefit our businesses, our consumers, our workers and our farmers," said Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., as the clock wound down toward a final vote. "It will make the United States the preferred supplier of consumer goods to the North American market.
NAFTA would phase out tariffs on goods over 15 years, and supporters say it would open the door for American exports to an enormous new market in Mexico. Clinton, attending a trade meeting with Asian leaders in Seattle, says it would strengthen his hand in negotiating broader free-trade pacts.
Opponents, many of them backed by organized labor, say it would lead American businesses to move their factories to Mexico, where labor is cheap and environmental standards lax, and thousands of jobs would be lost in this country as a result.
The final attempt to derail NAFTA was waged on procedural and Constitutional grounds as much as on the merits of the accord.
The bill is advancing under rules that prohibit changes. Yet Stevens sought permission to strip from the bill side agreements dealing with labor issues, environmental cleanup and border patrol. He also sought to delete a proposed North American Development Bank, one of the many provisions the Clinton administration tucked into the legislation to build support in the House.
Stevens said these amounted to "extraneous matters" that were worked out by the Clinton administration after its mandate authority to conclude the trade pact had expired. He also said the Constitution permits senators to propose amendments to any legislation.
NAFTA supporters disputed his Constitutional claim, saying the Constitution also allows the Senate to set its own rules, and that the rules for NAFTA prohibited any amendments. But they saw a broader threat in Steven's proposal.
"Whatever the intention of the amendment, there is no doubt about its effect," said Majority Leader George Mitchell. "If the amendment is adopted there will be no North American Free Trade Agreement."
The 73-26 roll call turned back Stevens' challenge, and he said he would not pursue additional steps to unravel the agreement.
Until Stevens raised his objections, NAFTA had seemed on cruise control toward passage in the Senate.
An Associated Press survey showed 54 senators favor the accord, with one more leaning in favor.