Posted on 06/29/2002 5:10:46 PM PDT by Pokey78
A rift between Tony Blair and George W Bush is set to deepen this week as the United States administration rejects British calls to be spared from steel tariffs.
Washington lobbyists expect the US to grant only a fifth of the exemptions to the ban on British imports for which Mr Blair has lobbied.
The rebuff will come after the most public split between Washington and London over how to deal with the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat.
Although Downing Street officials are playing down the clash between Mr Blair and President Bush at the G8 summit meeting in Calgary, Canada, they are braced for a further downturn in the so-called "special relationship" as the tariff exemption deadline expires on Wednesday.
If, as expected, the import ban is largely maintained, the European Union is preparing counter-measures to undermine Mr Bush's Republicans in this year's elections.
"The Government needs more than it has got," said one Whitehall official. "Time is rapidly running out." Without significant concessions from Washington, Britain will be forced to support EU retaliation, he said.
Political pressure on Mr Blair is acute over steel tariffs, with several ministers including Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, and David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, sensitive to steel producers and workers within their own constituencies. So is Peter Hain, the Foreign Office minister, who represents a South Wales constituency.
Washington lobbyists working on behalf of the British steel industry estimate that only 20 per cent of all British requests have been satisfied - much less than Mr Blair will need to claim victory.
Ministers are privately furious at Britain's failure to win more concessions. "You have to remember that this is a rather unpleasant administration.
The fact that there has been a full-blooded attempt to forge a relationship with it hasn't changed its fundamental nature - protectionist and self-interested," said a minister involved in the negotiations.
The proposed EU retaliation has been designed to cause maximum embarrassment to Mr Bush. It includes a plan to levy duty on citrus fruit, which would hurt farmers in Florida whose votes are essential to Jeb Bush, the president's brother, in his attempt to win re-election as governor in November.
Meanwhile, Washington officials expect the two governments to "come to blows" over the new International Criminal Court (ICC), which comes into being tomorrow with passionate support from Mr Blair and his wife, Cherie. The Bush administration objects to the United Nations-sponsored court and fears that its wide remit could expose American troops to malicious prosecutions.
For that reason, Washington is opposing renewal of the UN mandate for the Bosnian peacekeeping forces, which runs out this week, unless it includes a special provision to exclude American peacekeepers from prosecution by the court.
UN observers expect Mr Bush to instruct diplomats to use America's Security Council veto to vote down a new mandate - a move which would, in effect, pull the rug from under the joint forces in Bosnia. "It's crazy," one official said.
"To pull the whole ICC to pieces, or to cancel the peacekeeping effort, simply because of a slight technical risk that an American soldier might be prosecuted, makes no sense."
The two disputes, against a background of disagreements over Mr Bush's $190 billion (£121 billion) farm subsidy bill and his opposition to measures against global warming, are coming to a head after the worst week for relations between the two governments since September 11.
Mr Bush has faced fierce criticism within the US for what many see as his hypocrisy in arguing strongly for free trade during the election campaign, then caving in to politically sensitive special interests once in office.
In addition to farmers and steel producers, he has moved to protect American timber producers in a dispute with Canada - and has done little to defuse a long-running wrangle with Europe over airlines' access to domestic routes.
The free market Wall Street Journal recently accused Mr Bush of "pandering" to domestic interests on trade.
"Will the real George W Bush we once knew please stand up?" thundered an editorial that identified March 5, the date he imposed steel tariffs, as a turning point for his reputation.
"It signalled to the world that Mr Bush was not the president he had seemed after September 11; his moral and strategic clarity could be compromised for a price."
We have rifts in White House, rifts between Powell and Rumsfeld, rifts between Hughes and Rove, now this. If these reporters are so overstocked on rifts, why not spend them on Sharon and Arafat? Maybe we need a Rift Of The Week award to point out how ridiculous these 'rift' stories are getting. |
It would also appear that US Steel Companies want to jack up their prices now that we have tariffs in place to ensure their democrat voting, unionite labor continues to be paid way more than their jobs are actually worth er, "protect them from dumping"
LOL. And while you're at it don't forget to throw in an Apocalypse of the Week award as well. Last week the world was supposed to end but this week it's really, really curtains. Promise.
As far as I'm concerned, this should be considered an act of war if it happens. However...
The proposed EU retaliation has been designed to cause maximum embarrassment to Mr Bush. It includes a plan to levy duty on citrus fruit, which would hurt farmers in Florida whose votes are essential to Jeb Bush, the president's brother, in his attempt to win re-election as governor in November.
...if this is the best the EUnuchs can come up with, Bush has little to worry about.
Oh, and the part about the Europeans undermining the Republicans in this years elections was perhaps the funniest part of this whole piece.
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I take it the rift manufacturers were having a convention next door to the Journalism Conference. All these reporters seem to have stocked up on rifts.