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 TRADE TOPICS
 Agriculture |  China | Corporate Sustainability | Import  | Poverty |  Security |  TPA/Fast Track

What Is Trade Promotion Authority (Fast Track)?

Trade Promotion Authority (also referred to as TPA or "Fast Track") is a partnership between our executive and legislative branches that allows Congress to set objectives for the Administration to achieve in each trade negotiation.  Under Fast Track, the president is authorized to negotiate trade agreements with foreign countries, allowing any United States Trade Representative (USTR) to have credibility when dealing with foreign negotiators. Once a deal is struck, Congress may approve or reject it based on whether the stated objectives were met.  TPA is not a partisan issue.  Since 1974, Congress has granted Republican and Democratic presidents the authority to negotiate trade agreements.  Fast Track renewal was last restored by Congress in 2002 and expired on July 1, 2007.

Why Do We Need to Renew TPA? 

America must continue to negotiate trade agreements in this streamlined manner in order to open new markets for American goods, services, and agricultural products, and bring lower priced goods and expanded choices to American consumers.  Our exports depend on TPA's renewal.

• Over the past 20 years, approximately 1/3 of the growth in the U.S. economy came through exports
• U.S. exports directly support more than 12 million jobs, and these jobs typically pay 13% to 18% more than the average U.S. wage
• 1 in every 3 acres of farmland in the U.S. is planted for export
• 1 in every 5 manufacturing jobs is tied to overseas sales
• U.S. service providers brought in export revenues of more than $400 billion in 2006
• Exports to the nine countries with which the United States has struck new trade agreements since TPA was restored in 2002 grew by a remarkable 19% in 2006—roughly 50% faster than the overall growth in U.S. exports.  Among those new partners, U.S. exports to Morocco grew by 67%, Bahrain by 40%, and Chile by 30%.  

In today's global economy where bilateral trade agreements are happening everywhere, absence of TPA threatens to put the US on the trade sidelines allowing the benefits of trade agreements to accrue to other nations, but not our own. WCIT strongly encourages Congress to renew trade-negotiating authority as quickly as possible. TPA renewal is critical to USTR’s ability to negotiate and implement comprehensive, high-standard global, bilateral, regional and sub-regional agreements. Without renewal, USTR’s effectiveness in negotiating fair and firm agreements is severely hampered.

For more information on "Fast Track," please visit the following sites:

• Statement from USTR on TPA (6/29/07)
• Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) on TPA (2/15/07)
• WCIT Prior commentary (2002)