Union-Tribune (San Diego)
House Republican leaders this week fired the opening salvo in what is likely to be a contentious battle over free trade.
Rep. Phil Crane, R-Ill., chairman of the House Ways and Means subcommittee on trade, introduced a measure that would restore the president's "fast track" authority to negotiate international trade agreements.
Fast-track authority or, as the Bush White House prefers, "trade promotion" authority, allows a president to negotiate agreements that Congress can approve or reject, but not amend.
Every president from Gerald Ford to George Herbert Walker Bush enjoyed the prerogative. However, it lapsed in 1994. And when President Clinton sought renewal in 1997, he was rebuffed by Congress, mainly because of labor and environmental issues.
Those issues remain impediments to passing fast-track legislation in the Democratic-controlled Senate, where Democratic leaders frowned on the measure introduced by Crane.
"If this represents the start," said a spokesman for Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, "then we have a long way to go in terms of properly addressing labor and environmental concerns."
Free trade Republicans, like California Rep. David Dreier, say their party supports efforts to protect worker rights and the environment. But they part ways with those who would use those issues "to ensure we have no international trade agreement at all."
Adds House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas: "We simply cannot afford to sit on the sidelines any longer, as the rest of the world continues striking trade agreements that exclude the U.S."
But that is precisely what will happen if Congress fails to restore the president's fast-track authority. Without it, any agreement negotiated by the Bush administration would be subject to any number of amendments once it is submitted to Congress for ratification.
This prospect may not especially trouble Sen. Baucus and other Democratic leaders. But it would do serious damage to the trade negotiation process.
That's because trade agreements are carefully crafted, carefully balanced documents. If provisions are altered after the fact -- by amendments attached by lawmakers -- the entire deal may unravel. It is essential that the president have fast-track authority as he continues negotiations for the Free Trade Area of the Americas and prepares for a new round of trade liberalization talks sponsored by the World Trade Organization.
Copyright 2001 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.:
