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US war supporters to get free trade policy rewards

The Bush administration appears to be using trade policy to punish countries that did not cooperate in the US-led war on Iraq and reward those who did, trade policy analysts said Thursday.

"This is something that I personally am not enthusiastic about," Fred Bergsten, director of the Institute for International Economics, said in a speech to the US Asia Pacific Council, a newly formed foreign affairs group.

"But I think the reality must be recognized around the world, and certainly in the (Asia Pacific) region, that the US government at least for some time is going to differentiate between countries that it has designated as members of coalition of the willing and the other countries who were not as cooperative," Bergsten said.

The administration already has demonstrated this by delaying the signing of a free trade agreement with Chile because that country opposed a second UN Security Council resolution authorizing the use of force to disarm Iraq, Bergsten said.

In contrast, President George W. Bush will sign a free trade pact with Singapore, which supported the US action, when Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong visits the White House on May 6.

In another example, Australia has jumped to near the front of the list of future US free trade partners because of its strong support for the war, Bergsten said.

In a speech to the same group, US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick said the Bush administration still hoped for congressional approval of both the Singapore and the Chile agreements this year.

An administration official, speaking on the condition that he not be identified, denied that any desire for retribution was influencing US trade policy.
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