Two more congressmen from President Bush's Republican Party declared on Tuesday they would not vote for a new free trade agreement with five Central American countries and the Dominican Republic. The declaration came as Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez warned that rejection of the U.S.-Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) would send a troubling message to the rest of the world about the United States' commitment to free trade.

The Bush administration has been expected to submit CAFTA to Congress for a vote sometime this spring.

Because of opposition from labor groups, sugar producers and much of the textile industry, most Democrats in the House of Representatives are opposed to the pact. The White House therefore needs every Republican vote it can get in the House.

However, Rep. Mike Simpson and Rep. C.L. "Butch" Otter, both Republicans from the sugar-producing state of Idaho, said on Tuesday there was nothing the Bush administration could do to get their support for CAFTA.

"We are confident there is no additional information, nor any amount of arm twisting, which the administration or USTR can provide that would change our position," they said in a letter to the U.S. Trade Representative's office. "We are convinced the agreement will significantly harm Idaho's sugar growers and set a dangerous precedent."

Simpson and Otter both voted years ago to allow Bush to negotiate trade agreements, like CAFTA, that cannot be amended by Congress. That "trade promotion authority" bill won final approval in the House by just three votes. Last week, Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Saxby Chambliss, a Georgia Republican, also declared his opposition to CAFTA. Two other Republicans — Rep. Walter Jones of North Carolina and Rep. Virgil Goode of Virginia — have warned "the agreement would fail" if presented to Congress today.

In his first trade policy speech since taking office, Gutierrez said approval of CAFTA would boost exports of U.S. agricultural products and a wide range of manufactured goods to Central America and the Dominican Republic, while helping those countries become more prosperous and stable.

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