Bush Seeks Warmer Ties With Canada
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| Wed, 01-14-2004 - 11:34am |
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Jan 14, 10:59 AM EST
Bush Seeks Warmer Ties With Canada
By JENNIFER LOVEN
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration is considering whether to award lucrative reconstruction projects in Iraq to allies who opposed the U.S.-led war - possibly including Germany, France and Russia - in a major change of policy.
Bush outlined his new policy Tuesday as he announced that Canada would be allowed to bid on some of the $18.6 billion in reconstruction work from which it had been excluded.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said three or four other countries, which he declined to name, also would be eligible to bid for a second wave of reconstruction contracts, which U.S. officials estimated were worth roughly $4.5 billion.
White House press secretary Scott McClellan said any country that, like Canada, had been excluded because of opposition to the Iraq war could now qualify if it had made a pledge toward Iraq's reconstruction at the donors' conference held in October in Madrid, Spain.
In Paris on Wednesday, France's defense minister said her country remained committed to helping rebuild Iraq but will not drop its demand for the transfer of power into Iraqi hands for the chance to bid on lucrative reconstruction contracts.
Bush cited Canada's pledge of $225 million toward Iraq's reconstruction - one of the largest at the conference - and its expressions of support for the U.S.-led political efforts in Iraq as the reason it won a spot on the contracting list.
McClellan also held out the possibility for other nations, perhaps such as those that have agreed to forgive some of Iraq's massive foreign debt, would be allowed to bid. Though McClellan would not speculate on specific countries, and said discussions were continuing, that category would include France, Germany and Russia, which were furious that Bush left them out of the contracts process because of their opposition to the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.
None of those countries pledged contributions in Madrid.
"We've always said that if other countries want to participate in the efforts of the coalition and other countries that are participating in Iraq right now, then circumstances can change," McClellan told reporters traveling with Bush in Mexico.
French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said Wednesday her country was available to participate in Iraq's construction, "but obviously only if it is in the framework where the Iraqi authorities will get back their sovereignty and the ability to exercise their powers in full."
France has been calling for a quick transfer of power to a provisional Iraqi government and a stronger U.N. role in the transition. Paris also wants a timetable for Iraq to have a constitution and hold general elections.
The president returned to the White House Tuesday night.
Last month, after Congress approved $18.6 billion in Iraq reconstruction money, Bush said he would limit eligibility to countries that had helped militarily or had made other major contributions as "coalition partners."
Yet administration officials suggested even then that the policy was not necessarily black-and-white, and in recent days they have unveiled a multistage process that would allow other countries to enter the bidding after the already completed first round of contracts.
Canada's new prime minister, Paul Martin, praised the reversal on the contracts issue during a joint appearance with Bush - their first.
"It actually does show that, working together, you can arrive at a reasonable solution," Martin said.
The change of heart came as Bush also tried to smooth relations with another neighbors who opposed the Iraq war and saw ties worsen as a result. A day earlier, before the opening session of the 34-nation Summit of the Americas in Monterrey, Mexico, Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox put aside two years of differences and rallied behind a new U.S. proposal to grant legal status to millions of undocumented workers.
As for U.S.-Canadian relations, they began deteriorating when a U.S. bombing accident in Afghanistan in 2002 killed four Canadian soldiers and injured eight more. The two governments have also squabbled over trade issues, ranging from U.S. tariffs on Canadian lumber to U.S. restrictions on Canadian meat products because of a lone case of mad cow disease.
The beef issue flared anew last month with discovery of the disease in Washington state in a cow that came from Alberta.
Then, deeply angered by Canada's stance alongside France, Germany and Russia on the Iraq war, Bush canceled a trip to Ottawa planned for last May. As former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien's finance minister for nine years, Martin had backed his country's decision to abstain from the fighting in Iraq.
But Bush, with Martin at his side, said he saw no need to mend relations that - in his view - had never been damaged. "That assumes there was a freeze," he said to a question about the status of cross-border ties. "And I didn't feel there was."
Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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I don't understand this process of alienating countries, then playing 'nice' with them.
We