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ISSUE BRIEF: Fast Track Negotiating Authority

Background: Fast track is the traditional trade negotiating authority granted by Congress that allows the President to negotiate international trade agreements. Under fast track procedures, the President submits the legislation to Congress for approval or rejection. No amendments are allowed. Congress has ninety legislative days to approve or reject. While congressional and private sector leaders are consulted throughout the negotiations, the final agreement presented as a package assures our trading partners that any solutions they strike with U.S. trade negotiators will not be renegotiated by Congress.

Congress has granted fast track authority five times since 1974 to presidents of both parties. That authority has now lapsed. The first major trade bill to be approved under the fast track process was the Trade Agreements Act of 1979, which implemented the results of the Tokyo Round of GATT negotiations. It passed both chambers by overwhelming majorities.

Congress extended fast track authority in 1984, enabling the Reagan Administration to negotiate free trade agreements with Israel and Canada. It was extended again in 1988, 1991 and 1993 to allow consummation of the NAFTA talks and the Uruguay Round of the GATT negotiations.

Significance: Fast track negotiating authority is needed to ensure U.S. leadership as Seattle prepares to host the World Trade Organization’s Ministerial Meeting at the end of 1999. The negotiations to be launched will require strong U.S. leadership not only to protect and promote U.S. interests, but also to provide momentum to the only global forum dedicated to helping trade flow as freely as possible and to settling disputes as they occur. U.S. leadership of the multilateral trade agreements consummated in the last twenty-five years has been possible because Congress granted fast track authority to the Administration.

Opponents of fast track authority argue that fast track agreements will hurt U.S. workers because they will further open markets to lower wage countries, forcing down U.S. wages and moving U.S. jobs overseas. Fast track circumvents congressional efforts to push U.S. trading partners to strengthen the regulation and enforcement of their environmental standards and workers’ rights as part of any new trade agreement, opponents say. In addition, opponents believe, U.S. public access to trade officials during negotiations favors the views of large companies over the interests of the public at large.

Furthermore, opponents believe the United States will lose its ability to set its own rules and control its own fate if imports are allowed to flood our markets and we become too dependent on uncertain overseas markets and world trade authorities. Those opposing multilateral trade agreements say those pacts will force U.S. citizens to accept international standards on labor, environmental and health issues that will be lower than those mandated by U.S. laws. U.S. will thus sovereignty be eroded.

Proponents of fast track authority argue that consultative procedures by the Administration with congressional leadership and the private sector ensure that the public’s views and interests will be influential in any agreements reached and submitted to Congress. Supporters believe fast track authority improves the leverage of U.S. negotiators, allowing them to strike a deal maximizing benefits to the U.S. economy. In this view, fast track procedures are essential to conducting good faith negotiations with U.S. trading partners.

The absence of fast track authority is a major constraint to U.S. negotiators seeking equal treatment for U.S. businesses abroad, and to U.S. companies seeking to expand into overseas markets. Additionally, proponents believe expanded international trade provides opportunities for American workers to obtain better paying and better skilled jobs.

Council’s Position: A bipartisan show of support for renewed fast track authority is essential. Fast track authority will enable expansion of trade opportunities. Further market-opening initiatives strengthen the ability of Washington State businesses to compete abroad, and Washington State workers to find better-paying jobs. The Administration’s authority to negotiate the U.S. into an equitable position in new markets will spur U.S. economic growth, create new high-wage jobs and ensure that the U.S. sustains its global trade leadership.

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