Attorneys general ask Clinton to hold summit on trade

AUGUSTA (AP) — More than 40 state attorneys general led by Maine’s Michael Carpenter are asking President Clinton to hold a state-federal summit on the potential domestic impact of new global trade rules.

In a letter signed by his counterparts from around the nation, Carpenter asked Clinton this week to agree to a summit this summer before the administration submits legislation to implement provisions of the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.

Carpenter said state officials seek “a thorough airing of concerns about how the Uruguay Round and the proposed World Trade Organization would affect state laws and regulations.”

“This is of particular concern given that some of our trading partners have apparently identified specific state laws which they intend to challenge under the WTO,” Carpenter wrote.

Carpenter, who recently announced he will not seek re-election but plans to serve the remainder of his term this year, said questions raised by state officials concerning GATT are similar to those put to federal officials last year about the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The October 1993 letter urging increased protections for the states under NAFTA was sent to U.S. Trade Representative Mickey Kantor by Texas Attorney General Dan Morales.

States lock horns frequently with the federal government in legal disputes over whether local statutes violate national laws. Proponents of state sovereignty say they worry that states may be left without a forum to contest undesirable byproducts of international trade pacts.

Carpenter said one illustrative example might be a state’s ban on chemicals used to treat fruits or vegetables that could be subject to attack by a foreign government under new global trading rules.

More broadly, he said countless state standards could be vulnerable — “anything that another country could say is a trade restriction.”

“We can’t say that this law or that law is in jeopardy, but we’re very concerned,” Carpenter said Thursday in a brief interview.

He said the states share “sort of a generalized anxiety.”

Besides writing with other attorneys general directly to Clinton on Wednesday, Carpenter himself also sent a letter to Kantor, thanking him for offering to have his staff meet next week with representatives of individual attorneys general as well as their national association.

Carpenter wrote that a series of meetings with administration officials could allow state representatives to propose changes in legislation to be submitted to Congress.

“Such an opportunity to engage in a real dialogue with the administration over the states’ federalism concerns may give greater focus to the proposed summit or make its occurrence somewhat less urgent,” Carpenter told Kantor.

Carpenter said Thursday the state expressions of concern were not meant to embarrass the administration. He said the attorneys general hoped to build a permanent structure that could speed reviews of future trade deals, “so that we can be involved before the deal is done.”