Business Notes

One of the prickliest issues in Congress lately has been the prospective free- trade agreement with Mexico. While economists are virtually unanimous that free trade benefits both trading nations, labor unions fear they'll lose jobs to Mexicans who work for lower wages, and have opposed the pact. So have environmentalists, who fear that industry will boom south of the border, where antipollution laws are less strictly enforced.

When President Bush promised to seek better cooperation from Mexico on the environment and to help supplanted workers, chances for an agreement took a giant step forward. Last week congressional committees endorsed Bush's authority to negotiate a deal that Congress must vote up or down but may not amend. This so-called fast-track authority is crucial, because no country wants to bother hammering out a pact that Congress can then turn inside out. Presuming Bush's negotiators clinch a deal like the recent one with Canada -- and Congress approves it -- North America could achieve a truly open common market about the same time Europe does next year.