You can tell when President Bush wants something really, really bad. He brings it up over and over and over again. Every opportunity he’s had, Bush has urged Congress to ratify the Free Trade Agreement with Colombia.

The trade accord has been negotiated, agreed upon, renegotiated and signed by both countries. But to be implemented it has to be approved by Congress, and the Democratic leadership refuses to do it. So why are both sides so stuck in their positions?

Here are the two versions: Bush and the Republicans claim that the agreement will benefit U.S. businesses by allowing products into the Colombian market free of tariffs, and that it’s necessary to strengthen Colombia so it can fend off the threat of leftist governments in Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia.

Democrats say that before approving the Free Trade Agreement with Colombia, the U.S. government needs to take care of its own in this weakening economy, and that the government of President Alvaro Uribe in Colombia needs to do more to stem the assassinations of union leaders.

So is this really about supporting Colombia and giving U.S. exporters a market in which to sell their products, and about protecting labor laws and human rights in a foreign country, or more of a power struggle between Republicans and Democrats?

Dr. Bruce Michael Bagley, professor of international studies at the University of Miami, thinks it’s the latter. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, according to Bagley, wants Bush to accept the Trade Adjustment Act, which would provide training for American workers who might lose their jobs as a result of international trade pacts. And what the president is trying to do is “flex his muscle and embarrass Democrats,” says Bagley.

I don’t know about the “embarrassing the Democrats” part, but Bush certainly did try to flex his muscle. In early April the president put the Colombian Free Trade Agreement on the fast track, giving Congress 90 days to approve it without a possibility of making any changes. But the Democratic leadership did not take the bait. Pelosi was successful in blocking the vote in the House of Representatives by simply changing the rules, and there was nothing the White House could do about it but complain and continue to lobby for the passage of the accord.

In Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, the Bush administration found its best and most direct cheerleader on this issue. “If Colombians don’t buy our tractors, they’ll buy them from Japan,” he said. “If they don’t buy our wheat, they’ll buy it from Canada, and if they don’t buy our high-tech equipment, they’ll buy it from China.”

The fact is that Colombia already has an advantage over the U.S., under the Andean Trade Preference Act. More than 90 percent of Colombian products enter the United States duty-free, while our exports face tariffs up to 35 percent and even higher for some agricultural products. The new trade accord with Colombia would eliminate tariffs on more than 80 percent of American exports of industrial and consumer goods immediately, and on 100 percent of American exports over time.

But in an election year, it’s not likely that either side will give in. Democrats aren’t just worried about union leaders in Colombia being killed, they are responding to pressure from big unions in the United States opposed to the deal. And who knows what kinds of promises the White House made to Colombia that it cannot make good on. So, for now, Colombia is going to have to stay stuck in the middle of yet another political power struggle between the White House and the Democratic leadership.