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• Author: International Law Group

U S. enacts new "fast-track" trade bill

On August 7 last, President Bush signed into law a so-called "fast track" measure. It gives the President wide authority until 2007 to negotiate trade arrangements with foreign nations that Congress may vote up or down as a whole but cannot amend. [See Trade Act of 2002, Pub. Law 107- 210, 116 Stat. 933, 935, Aug. 6, 2002] Congress first granted the President trade promotion authority in 1974. During President Clinton's term in 1994, the authority lapsed due to Congress' failure to renew it. Some original opponents of the law decided to support it when negotiators agreed to include subsidized health insurance and job-training benefits for workers who forfeit their jobs to global competition. The President reported that he would promptly move to enter into trade deals with Chile, Singapore and Morocco. The U.S. is also interested in negotiating a "Free Trade Area of the Americas." This plan first surfaced in 1994 and would integrate thirty-four nations in North and South American into one free-trade bloc similar to the NAFTA arrangements which the U.S. now has with Mexico and Canada. The enactment of fast-track authority will help to improve trade relations with the European Union and will reduce the likelihood of a trans-Atlantic trade war.

It will also breathe new life into the "Doha Round" of negotiations. They seek to liberalize trade among all the 144 members of the WTO. Trade promotion authority should make more likely the integration of the poorer nations into the global system of trade, despite difficulties brought about by lower wages and other costs in those countries.

Citation: The New York Times, Wednesday, August 7, 2002, Late Edition - Final, Section A, Page 5, Col. 1 (byline of Elisabeth Bumiller); Id., Monday, August 5, 2002, Late Edition - Final, Section A, Page 15, Col. 1 (byline of Walter Russell Mead, senior fellow at Council on Foreign Relations).

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