Resistance builds to fast track Mark Haim THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION is mounting a concerted effort to push through Congress Presidential Trade Promotion Authority, commonly known as Fast Track, and opposition is mounting. According to the U.S. Constitution, treaties are sent to the Senate for debate, possible amendment and possible ratification. Fast Track allows those seeking to push through corporate-friendly trade agreements to make an end-run around Congressional scrutiny, limiting debate and requiring a simple up or down vote on an agreement without any amendments. Bush hopes to win Fast Track authority, something repeatedly denied to President Clinton, in order to push through the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and a new round of World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements. The progressive movement in opposition to corporate-directed globalization has other plans. Many votes are in play and the next month will likely prove decisive. The same loose coalition of labor, environmental, family farm, human rights, anti-sweatshop, pro-safe food and social justice groups that stormed the WTO in Seattle and raised a ruckus at the Summit of the Americas in Quebec this past April is mounting a concerted effort to stop Fast Track. They seek to assure that any trade agreements proposed will be careful evaluated and accepted only if they truly safeguard workers, the environment and local economies. The FTAA would expand the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to include the entire hemisphere except Cuba. NAFTA has already had devastating effects on small farmers and working people in Mexico, the United States and Canada, so critics content that the FTAA will only spread the pain while enriching the large transnational corporations. In Mexico alone, since NAFTA was enacted more than eight million middle class families have slipped below the poverty line. Millions more campasenos have been forced off the land they were farming and forced to look for work in crowded Mexican cities or by travelling north as illegal immigrant workers. Of course, the so-called free trade agreements remove borders so that capital can move freely to wherever the greatest profit can be made, but make no comparable provision for labor. FTTA will also take NAFTA a step further by promoting the privatization of essential services like health care, education, water and other utilities. It is currently unclear whether Bush will be able to muster the support he seeks in Congress. While most Republicans and many Democrats support the so-called “free trade” agenda of their corporate backers, there are a significant number in both parties who are questioning the wisdom of Fast Track. The proposed bill, HR 2149, as introduced by Rep. Phil Crane (R-IL), is a most extreme version of Fast Track, lacking any language calling for environmental and labor concerns to be addressed. It is therefore not winning the support of some pro-trade Democrats who might support Fast Track if it contained “fig leaf” provisions minimally addressing these constituent concerns. Fast Track is likely to come up for a vote before the August recess. Anyone interested in having input with there legislators should contact their Congressperson and Senators as soon as possible. You can reach your Representative and Senators by calling the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121. Or you can write them at U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, DC 20515 or U.S. Senate, Washington, DC 20510. They all have e-mail addresses, but e-mails are not considered as effective as letters and calls. For more info on Fast Track visit www.tradewatch.org or call Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch at 202-546-4996.