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 Rice said that the administration had made a big move in that area by reaching agreement last May with Democrats to include tougher language on protecting worker rights and the environment in the trade deals that are now pending before Congress.
But she said that other proposals were being explored to win votes in Congress for trade agreements with Peru, Panama, Colombia and South Korea.
She said that she found troubling recent polls showing support for free trade slipping among American voters, even Republicans who traditionally have been stronger backers of open trade.
"I am concerned about maintaining a bipartisan consensus for free trade," Rice said during an interview with a small group of reporters at the State Department.
The administration wants to pass the three deals with Latin American nations and the free trade deal with South Korea. Yet it faces an uphill battle given five consecutive years of record trade deficits that critics contend have played a major role in the loss of more than 3 million manufacturing jobs since President Bush took office in 2001.
Rice said that in addition to backing tougher language on labor and the environment, the administration was reviewing proposals to boost support for retraining workers who lose their jobs because of trade competition. It also is looking at ways to increase resources available to the government of Colombia to prosecute cases of alleged murders of labor leaders in that country to keep unions from being established.
Rice refused to discuss a timetable for getting the agreements through Congress, but she rejected the idea that the agreements must be passed before the end of the year because it will be even more difficult to get agreement in an election year.
At the moment, the agreements with Peru and Panama are considered likely to pass. The deal with Colombia is believed to be in trouble because of human rights issues, and the deal with South Korea is being strongly opposed because of barriers that country has erected to keep out American-made autos and U.S. beef.
Speaking to a gathering at the Organization of American States, Rice said that the failure of Congress to pass the three Latin American trade deals would be a tremendous blow to U.S. efforts to boost democracy and free-market forces in Latin America.
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 "It would be a retreat from our responsibility of leadership and a renunciation of our influence in the Americas," she said. "Peru, Colombia and Panama are among our best partners in the region."
Defeat of the measures in Congress, Rice said, "would send a signal loud and clear across the region that the United States can somehow not be trusted to keep its promises."
"We in the United States cannot afford to turn inward, to become fearful, to dwell on the actions of others or to give in to doubt or despair," Rice said.
"This isn't an issue of right or left," she said in response to an audience question. "We have outstanding relationships with governments from the left, like the government of Brazil, the government of Chile, the government of Uruguay. We have excellent relations with governments from the right, like the government of El Salvador, the government of Colombia."
Rice's speech was part of a concerted administration effort to jump-start its stalled trade agenda. Since Democrats took control of Congress last fall, Congress has not approved any free trade agreements that the administration has negotiated. It also allowed Bush's authority to negotiate future deals under expedited procedures to expire.
In the past two weeks, key House and Senate panels have approved the deal with Peru.
In her meeting with reporters, Rice said that the administration still supported the goal of achieving a Free Trade Agreement that would cover the entire hemisphere except for communist Cuba. But that proposal ran into strong opposition in such countries as Brazil and is given little chance of being revived before Bush leaves office.
[Associated Press; by Martin
Crutsinger]
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
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