Republican John McCain met tonight with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to emphasize his support for free trade and the South American nation's fight against drug trafficking.

``I think we've achieved a remarkable level of success even though we have a long way to go,'' McCain said of Uribe's efforts, assisted by the U.S., against the drug trade and rebel groups challenging the government.

The two men held their meeting at the Colombian leader's home in Cartagena, the first stop on the Republican presidential candidate's trip to Latin America. McCain travels tomorrow to Mexico City to talk with Mexico's President Felipe Calderon.

While McCain said the visits aren't political, the issues involved -- trade, security and immigration -- fit in the theme's of the Arizona senator's presidential campaign. Uribe sought to bring some diplomacy to the event, saying that he viewed recent comments about Colombia by McCain's Democratic rival, Barack Obama, ``to be positive.''

The effect of trade on U.S. jobs is a top issue in industrial states such as Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan, which also are battlegrounds for McCain and Obama in the presidential campaign. The three states each have lost more than a quarter of their manufacturing jobs in the past eight years and labor groups, many of which are supporting Obama, are blaming free trade accords for the decline.

Opportunity and Risk

``McCain does have the opportunity to take the optimistic, pro-trade mantra,'' said Ed Gresser, a trade official in the Clinton administration and now an analyst at the Progressive Policy Institute, a research group in Washington affiliated with the Democratic Leadership Council that supports trade. Still, making those arguments in Mexico and Canada means ``he risks being seen as taking the side of foreigners.''

McCain has stuck by his support for free trade, while Obama said during his primary race against New York Senator Hillary Clinton that he would press Canada and Mexico, two of the biggest U.S. trading partners, to rework portions of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Obama also has urged Congress to hold off approval of pending accords with Colombia and South Korea.

Trade is an unusual point of contention in presidential politics, said Carla Hills, the U.S. trade representative in President George H.W. Bush's administration.

Waning Consensus

``This is the first time we've had trade in play as a divisive issue, because for 60 years we've had bipartisan agreement'' that trade benefited the U.S., Hills said in a speech in Washington.

That consensus is waning. Fifty-one percent of Americans say trade is a threat to the economy, the first time a majority of voters feared foreign competition, according to a poll by CNN/Opinion Research Corporation released today. In a 2000 CNN poll, 35 percent said free trade was harmful.

McCain said he supports passage of the free trade accord between Colombia and the U.S., which has been hung up by the Democratic majority in Congress.

``Colombia is the largest market in South American for U.S. agricultural products,'' McCain said.

Link to Security

The Arizona senator also is framing the trade debate as a national security issue and highlights the need to boost the economies of U.S. trading partners as a way to help the economy, control illegal immigration and curb drug trafficking.

In the case of Colombia, McCain applauded Uribe's efforts against the Marxist-inspired Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, which has been waging a four-decade battle against the Colombian government.

The Colombia and Mexico visits mark McCain's second foray outside the U.S. during his presidential campaign. He made a pitch for Nafta on a trip to Ottawa last month.

During the primaries, Obama, 46, an Illinois senator, said Nafta should be renegotiated to enhance labor and environmental protections under the threat of a U.S. withdrawal. He has since softened that stance, telling Fortune magazine in a June 18 interview that he favors ``opening up a dialogue'' with Canada and Mexico.

McCain's support of trade will help Obama, said Lori Wallach, president of Global Trade Watch, a group which opposes free-trade agreements.

``It's one thing to have that view, it's another thing to wave it around like a pair of red underwear,'' Wallach said, calling trade a ``wedge issue'' that may push factory workers toward Obama.

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