Jeb Bush on Free Trade Republican FL Governor; V.P. prospect

Four visits to Taiwan to increase trade exchange

Knowing of Jeb Bush's friendship with Therese Shaheen, the former chairperson of the American Institute in Taiwan, Lu also asked him to convey her greetings to Shaheen.

They also talked about increasing trade exchanges between Taiwan and Florida. The governor said that he has visited Taiwan four times, with the last visit in 1991. Lu invited him to visit again, and he said he would consider this. In turn, the governor invited Lu to visit his state.

Strengthen Cuban embargo; talking undermines US credibility

Jeb Bush had called for strengthening the embargo against Cuba as recently as two weeks ago. On his Facebook page [after Obama's announcement], Bush wrote that the administration's decision to restore diplomatic ties with Cuba is "the latest foreign policy misstep by this President, and another dramatic overreach of his executive authority. It undermines America's credibility and undermines the quest for a free and democratic Cuba."

Since a decade ago, the old ideological and economic battle lines have been fading. Even as a trade embargo has remained in place, nearly 600,000 U.S. travelers went to Cuba last year--the majority of them Cuban-Americans. Business interests have pushed for more openness, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce pledged its support for Obama's decision.

Advocated Miami as HQ for Free Trade Area of the Americas

Jeb Bush has aggressively courted support for the headquarters. The governor says his brother's decision on backing a U.S. city for the headquarters--either Atlanta or Miami--"will be based on the merits of the location." The eventual winner must be approved by the 34 nations that comprise the trade group.

Enforce trade law against subsidized Canadian lumber imports.

• Whereas, the US Department of Commerce has determined that the Canadian provinces subsidize lumber production by selling timber to Canadian lumber companies at non-competitive prices for a fraction of the timber’s market value, and imposed an import duty of 19.3%;
• Whereas, artificially low provincial timber prices, minimum harvesting restrictions and other practices encourage over-harvesting and over-production in Canada to the detriment of US industry, forest land owners, workers and the environment;
• Whereas, these unfair subsidy practices have helped Canadian imports gain an increasing share of the US softwood lumber market, rising 15% from the first to second quarter of 2001;
• Whereas, highly subsidized Canadian lumber imports unfairly compete with US lumber companies and affect thousands of US jobs, and drive down the value of US forest land; Whereas an agreement between the United States and Canada on lumber trade expired in March 2001; now, therefore, be it
• Resolved, That the Southern Governor’s Association urges the Administration to continue to enforce fully the current United States trading laws and to encourage open and competitive sales of timber in Canada.

Bound under state commitment to CAFTA.

States' commitments under CAFTA:

Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC) compiled a list of the status of each of the 50 states with regards to CAFTA procurement. For states that have rescinded their commitment, we infer that the incumbent governor strongly opposes CAFTA (because the state made a commitment and then un-made it). For states that declined to commit, we infer that the incumbent governor somewhat opposes CAFTA. For states that committed, we infer that the incumbent governor supports CAFTA.

CAFTA is the Central American Free Trade Agreement. CAFTA expands NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement, between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico) to five Central American nations (Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica and Nicaragua), and the Dominican Republic. It passed Congress on July 27, 2005.

Opposition to CAFTA procurement rules (by Public Citizen): Should an international trade agreement determine how we are allowed to spend our domestic tax dollars? Prior to the passage of CAFTA, the majority of state governments agreed: Subjecting decisions about how to spend state taxpayer dollars to second-guessing by foreign trade tribunals is a bad idea! As a result, a bi-partisan group of governors withdrew their initial agreement to bind their states to comply with CAFTA's procurement rules. Many other governors simply avoided binding their states to CAFTA's procurement rules in the first place. Common state economic development and environmental policies are prohibited by trade agreement procurement rules include:

• Measures to stop the offshoring of state jobs;
• "Buy Local" or "Buy America" policies;
• Preferences for recycled content, renewable energy, and alternative fuel vehicles.