Clinton's focus turns abroad

While Clinton has traveled abroad extensively throughout his presidency, his heavy itinerary for 1998 fits with what historians say is a tendency by second-term presidents to pay more attention to foreign affairs.

Presidents who manage to get re-elected generally have had enough success with their domestic agendas in the first four years that they can spend more time looking abroad in the second term, says Stephen Wayne, a professor at Georgetown University.

Plus, they're often weary of Washington politics by then.

''After a while, you get tired of the criticism in Washington from the other party, from the media, and you get a little tired of the political positioning for the next election, since you can't run,'' Wayne said.

In Clinton's case, there is plenty in Washington to be tired of.

This year's foreign itinerary was largely set before the Monica Lewinsky investigation came up. But the trips still give Clinton a chance to leave all that behind and project a presidential image from dramatic settings abroad while the strong economy keeps people content back home.

Clinton leaves tomorrow night for four days in Chile, where he will pay a state visit to President Eduardo Frei and join heads of state from 34 Western Hemisphere nations for a two-day Summit of the Americas in Santiago.

The centerpiece of the visit will be the launching of negotiations to produce a hemispheric free trade zone by 2005, under a timetable established at the first Summit of the Americas in Miami in 1994. But this year's trip lost much of its potential impact when Congress refused to give Clinton ''fast track'' authority to negotiate trade treaties without fear of congressional amendment.

''The absence of fast track prevents a real agreement from being negotiated,'' said Barry Bosworth, a Brookings Institution economist. ''The whole thing, to the United States, is a little embarrassing for the people who have been involved in negotiations with Latin America for a long time.''

Presidential adviser Mack McLarty said, ''I think we can make significant progress in the near term without it.''

Richard Feinberg, a former Clinton administration official who was a key architect of the first summit, said there has been little substantive progress on trade liberalization since the Miami summit, adding that Clinton's failure to get fast-track authority ''definitely hangs as a shadow'' over the Chile meeting.

04-14-98