Blumenauer speaks out against fast-track trade bill

Oregon Democratic Congressman Earl Blumenauer announced this week that he will oppose a fast-track trade bill that is being heavily lobbied by the Bush Administration.

The House Ways and Means Committee approved a revised fast track bill - House Resolution 3005 - Oct. 9 on a near party-line vote. The Bush Administration has wanted to take it to the full House of Representatives for a vote, but has not been able to muster enough votes to pass it. The AFL-CIO strongly opposes the bill and in recent weeks launched television commercials in 20 congressional districts illustrating the impact of free trade on jobs. One of those targeted was Blumenauer's Third District in Portland.

A new report by the Economic Policy Institute revealed that more than 3 million jobs in the United States have been lost to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and World Trade Organization.

In Oregon, net job losses from those trade agreements (accounting for jobs gained versus jobs lost) totaled 41,124 - or 2.5 percent of the state's workforce, the report said.

At a press conference in Portland Nov. 12, Blumenauer called HR 3005 "inadequate" and said he will not vote for it in its current form. He still supports the principle of free trade, he emphasized, but not at the expense of worker rights or environmental protections.

Supporters of HR 3005 claim to have added such protections to the legislation but, according to the AFL-CIO, they are little more than window dressing because they don't require any enforceable workers' rights or environmental standards.

"We're pleased with Congressman Blumenauer's decision to oppose this bill," said Tim Nesbitt, president of the Oregon AFL-CIO, "although we're still in disagreement over fast track as a procedural approach."

Three of Oregon's five representatives oppose HR 3005, including Democrats Peter DeFazio and Darlene Hooley.

The AFL-CIO has worked with allies in environmental, consumer and fair trade coalitions to defeat fast-track attempts in 1997 and again in 1998.

President Bush claims that he must have fast-track authority in order to negotiate new trade deals, especially to complete the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), which is based on an expansion of NAFTA.

Fast track is a procedure through which Congress gives the president authority to negotiate trade agreements and provides special rules for considering those agreements. From 1975 to 1994, fast-track authority outlined negotiating objectives for U.S. trade negotiators, limited the time Congress could debate and consider legislation to implement trade agreements after they had been completed by the president, and required an up-or-down vote with no congressional amendments allowed.

The president can negotiate trade agreements without fast-track authority, but he then has to let Congress debate the agreement at length and possibly add amendments that would modify the deal.�

Blumenauer said allowing an up or down vote is "absolutely essential" in any trade authority legislation, otherwise trade partners would be reluctant to negotiate with the United States "knowing that someone in Congress could pull the plug" on it.

The Bush Administration is trying to make fast track sound better by calling it "trade promotion authority," but it still has not proposed fixing any of the problems with previous fast-track proposals, the AFL-CIO charged.

Meantime, Democratic Congressmen Charles Rangel of New York and Sander Levin of Michigan have introduced the "Comprehensive Trade Negotiating Authority Act" as an alternative to HR 3005.

HR 3019 is currently co-sponsored by Hooley of Oregon and Jim McDermott of Washington, among others.

The Rangel/Levin proposal provides in the "principal negotiating objectives for free-trade agreements" the adoption and enforcement in a country's domestic law of the five International Labor Organization's core standards: Rights of association and collective bargaining, and bans on discrimination, forced labor and exploitative child labor.

The proposal also provides that all trade remedies would be available to enforce labor and environmental provisions, and that remedies included in any agreement would be "demonstrably effective to promote compliance."

Nesbitt said the national AFL-CIO is neutral on HR 3019 and that lawmakers won't be held accountable for their votes - for or against - when Committee on Political Education scorecards are tabulated.

"It goes a long way toward meeting our conditions," he said. "It's a better place to be, by far, than HR 3005."

There is no indication as to whether or not the bill will be supported by the Bush Administration. or House Republicans.