Open trade is not just an economic opportunity, the president said. It is a moral imperative.

The presidents address to a hemispheric business group laid the groundwork for his request later this week for broad treaty-making powers. Presidents from Ford to Clinton had authority to negotiate pacts that could be voted up or down by Congress without amendment, but the authority lapsed in 1994.

Free trade critics, including many Democrats in Congress, say they fear that Bush would negotiate deals that drive jobs from America or dont live up to U.S. environmental and labor standards. Though he broke no new policy ground, Bush opened a fresh line of attack by accusing his opponents of undermining their own goals.

By failing to make the case for trade weve allowed a new kind of protectionism to appear in this country. It talks of workers, while it opposes a major source of new jobs. It talks of the environment, while opposing wealth-creating policies that will pay for clean air and water in developing nations. It talks of the disadvantaged, even as it offers ideas that would keep many of the poor in poverty.

Bush did not mention his critics by name, but he was aiming at Capitol Hill.

I urge the Congress to restore our nations authority to negotiate trade agreements and I will use that authority to build freedom in the world, progress in our hemisphere and enduring prosperity in the United States, Bush told some 300 business leaders, ambassadors and government officials who attended the Council of the Americas event.

Im counting on the councils help to bring sanity to the United States Congress, he said.

A group of 61 senators sent Bush a letter Monday warning him that they will strongly oppose any new trade agreement that would restrict Americas ability to use its laws to protect American companies against unfair trade practices of other nations.

The letter cited Americas anti-dumping law, which allows the government to impose penalty tariffs against imported products being sold in the United States at unfairly low prices. It also cited a law that allows the United States to impose higher tariffs in retaliation for unfair trade barriers erected by another country against American exports.

Each of these laws is fully consistent with U.S. obligations under the World Trade Organization and other trade agreements, said the letter from the senators.

Among those signing were Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott, Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle and Sen. Max Baucus, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over trade matters.

Bush vowed to negotiate treaties that protect businesses and improve the environment, human rights and the lives of children. Open trade advances those American values, he said.

His remarks were echoed earlier in the day by Secretary of State Colin Powell, who told the same group that a proposed hemispheric free trade agreement would advance worker and human rights over the long run while protecting the environment and advancing economic equality.

Powell said the North American Free Trade Agreement is a powerful example of the benefits free trade can bring.

Did NAFTA hurt democracy in Mexico? Powell asked. No. Today, Mexico has a president elected from the opposition, the first in 70 years. It has freer labor unions, a freer press and a growing number of active non-governmental organizations.

The Council holds its annual meeting in Washington every spring but this is the first time in memory a U.S. president has agreed to address the gathering.

At the recent Summit of the Americas in Quebec, hemispheric leaders reaffirmed a commitment to conclude a regional free trade agreement by 2005. Anti-free trade groups sought to disrupt the proceedings, some arguing that free trade puts profits ahead of the needs of workers. Others maintained that NAFTA has not produced any benefits for Mexican workers.

Powell suggested the protesters were on the wrong side of history.

We need to get out the word, the message about the new world we live in and the opportunities before us. The noisy protesters against globalization, they cant see it, he said.