Derail Fast Track

The events of September 11th generated a torrent of bipartisan legislation from Capitol Hill. Now, neo-liberal leaders are using America’s burst of patriotic fervor to win the ‘Fast Track’ trade law that has eluded them for years. The vote on December 6th could be a landmark in the deregulation of corporate trade.

According to its supporters, Fast Track legislation is intended to strengthen the hand of the president during trade negotiations. While the Constitution requires the Senate to provide its ‘advice and consent’ on any international treaty, Fast Track would commit the Congress to a ‘Yes or No’ vote only on the next major trade agreement. The legislation would diminish the checks and balances placed on the increasingly powerful presidency.

Through the Clinton presidency and into the current administration, a coalition of labor unions <http://www.aflcio.org/globaleconomy/>, fair trade organizations <http://www.citizen.org/trade/fasttrack/index.cfm>, and environmentalist groups <http://www.sierraclub.org/trade/fasttrack/> fought to stave off Fast Track legislation. They were successful despite a long series of legislative machinations, and even today Fast Track may not have the support it needs to pass. Nevertheless, the federal leadership has decided to brand this law part of their ‘national unity’ campaign, branding its opponents divisive and unpatriotic. According to US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick, ‘This is not the time for the United States to be further paralyzed and not move forward on trade and openness’. The Republican Majority Leader in the House of Representatives, Dick Armey, has announced a vote on December 6.

Advocates for deregulated trade have pursued Fast Track for three decades. The first such law was passed under Richard Nixon’s ‘Imperial Presidency’. Even though this law called for the president to negotiate protections for workers’ rights, he did not do so – the clause was not mandatory. Fast Track was again approved in 1988 under Ronald Reagan, with similarly weak language on workers’ rights, and none to limit the environmental impacts of deregulation.

The result of these trade talks was a series of agreements to deregulate international trade. This culminated in the early 1990s with the creation of the most powerful body of transnational government to date, the World Trade Organization. During this time, workers’ standards of living have steadily declined, local governments have found themselves disempowered, and corporations have won free reign in their ability to abuse people and the environment. [For research on the impact of trade deregulation, see the Economic Policy Institue <http://www.epinet.org>]
Fast Track couches popular concerns, such as protecting workers’ rights to organize and maintaining economic and environmental security, in language that is even weaker than earlier bills. If it is ratified, President Bush will find himself with a Congressional mandate that eluded his predecessor, and will have won a major political victory in his drive to deregulate transnational corporations.