Under a furious lobbying barrage from the Clinton administration and a small army of corporate executives, the Senate stood on the verge Thursday of ratifying a sweeping expansion of global free trade.
The climactic vote will not occur until Thursday night after a second full day of debate, but supporters were saying they now had an ample number of votes for the agreement itself and, more importantly, a small cushion for the three-fifths majority they need on a budget waiver.Utah's senators were helping to lead the fight for the trade agreement.
Supporters said 60 senators - the three-fifths majority needed to overcome some possible procedural votes that could block or delay passage - were leaning or were firmly in favor of the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs.
Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, was among a group of 14 senators from both parties who appeared with Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen and U.S. Trade representative Mickey Kantor in a Capitol Hill rally urging its adoption.
While some have charged that GATT could hurt U.S. agriculture, Bennett told the rally that it will actually help it by lowering tariffs and other trade blocks elsewhere - as the United States has already done - to open up new markets.
"I've certainly heard from agricultural interests around Utah saying please vote for GATT," Ben-nett said.
He said the agreement is even more important to Utah's computer software industry because it will extend patent and copyright protection to help stop the piracy of software abroad.
"We have in the Provo-Orem area in Utah Valley more software companies than exist in Silicone Valley. It is one of the fastest growing technology centers of the world. And they make a large part of their money off exports," he said.
Bennett added, "Utah last year exported about $2 billion worth of goods and services." He said that could increase with GATT, which he said should create new jobs.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, also gave a floor speech defending GATT. He charged that its opponents were using misleading information and the same tactics that claimed the North American Free Trade Agreement would send American jobs abroad.
"Not only have those grave predictions of NAFTA opponents failed to materialize, but the immediate results of NAFTA have been as good or better than what many of us would have expected," Hatch said.
The agreement already passed the House on Tuesday by a 2-1 margin. All members of Utah's congressional delegation support the agreement.
"By the time the vote is actually taken tonight, we expect GATT will pass," said presidential press secretary Dee Dee Myers.
While administration officials and Senate supporters said their vote counts showed victory in their grasp, they did not let up in their lobbying efforts.
President Clinton met at the White House with a group of mostly undecided senators in an attempt to build the victory margin.
Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., said the president told senators "they will regret the vote the rest of their lives" if they oppose GATT. Bentsen warned the accord's defeat would have an "adverse reaction" in both the stock and bond markets, Conrad said.
Opponents, while conceding that the momentum was not going their way, did not let up in their efforts, either. A group of two-dozen protesters, one dressed as a lame duck, chanted outside the White House as senators arrived for breakfast with Clinton.
Sen. Fritz Hollings, D-S.C., said that the new trade agreement was a bad deal that, by lowering trade barriers, would subject American workers to unfair competition from low-wage countries.
"The reality is that we are in decline. Everybody knows that," said Hollings, whose home-state textile industry will be one of the biggest losers in the deal. "Wake up, Washington."
However, GATT supporters said that the Senate's choice on the last day of the 103rd Congress was between continuing to hold a position of economic leadership in the global economy or retreating behind protectionist barriers.
Thirty-three countries have ratified the 124-nation accord, and supporters said other countries are poised to act before Jan. 1 if the Senate follows the House.
According to an Associated Press survey, GATT proponents appeared on the verge of victory, when counting those who were leaning in favor but not firmly committed.
The AP head count had 61 senators for or leaning for waiving budget rules, 27 against or leaning against and 12 undeclared.
Opponents' only hope was to change enough senators' minds to muster 41 votes in favor of the procedural hurdle imposed by Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va. Under Senate rules, the implementing bill must offset all of the projected $43 billion in lost tariff revenues over the first decade of the accord.
To make up for the lost tariffs, the administration is cutting agriculture subsidies and implementing a grab bag of revenue-raisers, including changing the minimum rate on savings bonds, reducing the liability of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. and auctioning licenses for a new generation of wireless broadcast services.
Byrd said the bill falls $14.5 billion short and some senators, while declaring themselves in favor of free trade, said they would not vote to bust the budget.