Hill Leaders Wish Fast End to Fast Track

by Mike Hall, Jun 28, 2007

They say you shouldn’t speak ill of the dead or near dead. But when a group of senators, representatives, union members, environmentalists, faith groups and others gathered on Capitol Hill today at a rally to bid farewell to President Bush’s Fast Track Trade Authority, which is set to expire June 30, there were no kind words.  

Says Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.):  

We are fed up with trade agreements that undermine this country’s  interests. We declare Fast Track dead—and good riddance!  

There are no signs Bush trade allies on the Hill will be able to revive Fast Track.  

Fast track trade-promotion authority allows the president to negotiate trade deals but prevents Congress from improving or rejecting harmful provisions by allowing only “yes” or “no” votes on such trade packages.  

It has been a major weapon in Bush’s trade arsenal that has produced  flawed agreements such as CAFTA and the proposed agreements with Colombia and Korea.  Noting that Fast Track authority gives Bush a “blank check” in negotiating bad trade deals, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney says: 

For the last six years, this administration has negotiated one bad trade deal after another, each agreement passing by the slimmest of margins, over the objections of working people worldwide.  

President Bush’s trade agenda has failed because he has ignored the legitimate concerns of so many who are affected: workers, environmental, development, and human rights activists, family farmers and many domestic producers. 

Michigan has suffered some of the worst losses of good manufacturing jobs—250,000 in the past six years—because of bad trade deals. Says Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.):

Fast Track authority has been used to push bad agreements through Congress that have increased our trade deficit, cost us jobs, hurt our automobile industry and other manufacturers. American business and workers deserve agreements that are fair for America.   

With the clock ticking on the demise of Fast Track, it’s time for a “new direction in trade” says Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), who kicked off the rally.  

Voters in November spoke out against job-killing trade pacts and the fundamentally flawed trade policy of the last decade. We have a choice to lower our standards or demand that our trading partners raise theirs. Today, we set a new course for trade that works for U.S. businesses and workers, not just multinational CEOs. 

We can sit idly by as countries like China use unfair subsidies, manipulate their currency, suppress human rights and export unsafe products, or we can choose to confront these economic and health dangers and get proactive on trade. All of us want trade and more of it. But we want trade to produce positive results, not faulty products, massive job loss and unprecedented trade deficits. 

But even with Fast Track’s imminent death, it will have an afterlife of sorts. Trade agreements signed before it expires June 30—including Colombia, Korea, Peru and Panama—will fall under Fast Track rules.

Sweeney says although the Democratic Congress has made “significant progress” in improving workers’ rights and environmental protections for future trade deals, additional problems in other trade provisions (especially those dealing with investment, procurement and services) must still be addressed.  Sweeney made clear that the AFL-CIO will vigorously oppose the flawed deals with Colombia and Korea if they come before Congress.  

In Colombia, trade unionists continue to be murdered and threatened with alarming regularity, and their murderers operate with impunity. The Colombian government must show workers and the international community that it has both the capacity and the will to tackle impunity and end the violence before we even consider signing a free trade agreement. 

The proposed trade agreement with Korea is one-sided and decidedly against the interests of manufacturers and workers in the U.S. Our battered manufacturing sector simply cannot withstand another flawed trade deal that purports to open foreign markets, while instead serving to exacerbate the current imbalanced and unequal trading relationship. If the president sends this flawed deal to Congress, it should be rejected. 

In March, the AFL-CIO Executive Council adopted a statement outlining the principles that should be include in trade policy, including strong and enforceable labor and human standards and environmental protections. Click here to read the full statement.

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