SELA: Fast-track is
vital for FTAA
Clinton launches major campaign
to win fast-track trade negotiating authority
Caracas, 8 September. The Latin American Economic System (SELA) pointed out in a recent report that the battle initiated last 10 September by US President, Bill Clinton, to win congressional passage of the fast-track trade negotiating authority will require "a combination of diplomacy and brute political force".
"SELA Antenna in the United States Nš 39" considers that the authority "is vital for the proposed Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA)"; but acknowledges that winning it "will be very difficult", taking into consideration that the US Congress is divided in pro and anti-trade representatives, in both the Democratic and the Republican parties.
With a major event at the White House and the introduction of its fast-track bill before the Congress, on September 10 the Clinton administration kicked off a campaign for the renewal of this authority, which establishes special procedures to negotiate trade agreements with other countries without being subject to further legislative amendments.
Opportunity may be Clinton's main argument. Latin America and the Caribbean is one of the fastest-growing emerging markets in the world. If the United States does not act to protect its interests, it will be left behind, while its competitors - Europe and Japan – rush to negotiate trade agreements with this region.
Although the argument may seem irrefutable, the bill will have to confront free-trade opponents, who argue that trade liberalization "brings economic harm to American workers and threatens the health and safety of American consumers", referring to a recent series of episodes involving allegedly contaminated fruits from Mexico and Guatemala.
SELA's report, distributed this week to its 27 Member States, relives the importance of these criteria, by noting that "unemployment in the United States now stands at a 24-year low (4.8 per cent)", but recognizes that these groups are carrying out a "coordinated lobbying plan" against a new fast-track grant.
"Free-trade advocates have been completely idle" – adds the report – but in keeping with a well-established pattern, "they began organizing much later than their opponents". On the other hand, the business sector "threatens to support only a 'clean' fast-track bill that does not contain labor or environmental provisions".
To add yet one more political complication, all of the key players in this fight "are keeping an eye on the U.S. presidential election in 2000". On the pro-trade side are Vice President Al Gore and House Speaker Newt Gingrich; whereas the anti-trade faction is led by House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, who is Gore's strongest challenger as the possible Democrat candidate.
SELA's report considers that Clinton intends to use the same tactics that proved so effective in the debate to ratify the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). "Instead of mobilizing 'grass-roots' support and seeking to influence public opinion, the administration is trying to make deals with key decision-makers in Washington".
This means establishing a "war room", formed by current and former elected officials, "with the single-minded objective of putting together majorities in both houses of Congress". In order to win a new fast-track grant, President Clinton needs 218 votes in the House and 50 in the Senate. If Congress does not give the president a new grant of fast-track authority before the Second Summit of the Americas, scheduled for April next year in Santiago, "this might be the last such effort until the next president is inaugurated in 2001", points out the Permanent Secretariat of SELA.
According to the report, three types of bargaining might take place: "(1) on the much-debated terms of the labor and environmental objectives on the negotiations, (2) on other trade-related initiatives that appeal to specific constituencies in the Democratic Party, and (3) on smaller deals intended to secure the support of small groups of legislators".
Although bargaining on the first issue has been underway in on-again off-again talks since 1993, a formula that would be acceptable to the pro-trade factions in both political parties has not been found yet. Democrats insist that labor and environmental issues must be "on the table" in new negotiations, while the pro-trade Republicans object to the inclusion of the so-called blue and green issues on the table.
As regards the adhesion of specific constituencies, the White House has made a strong appeal to the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) and may also bargain for the support of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, as well as of those legislators interested in granting "NAFTA Parity" to the Caribbean Basin Initiative.
The third option resembles a tactic used by Clinton to attain the ratification of NAFTA in 1993, when he expressed his "willingness to bargain over almost any item of interest to a member of Congress".
Taken together, the three types of bargaining outlined above suggest that "the proposed fast-track extension bill may form part of a much broader, omnibus trade bill", which will offer the opportunity to enact such matters as the "NAFTA Parity" proposal for Caribbean Basin countries, a longer-term renewal of the Generalized System of Preferences, and a series of trade benefits for Africa, concludes the report prepared by the Permanent Secretariat of SELA.
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SELA, Permanent Secretariat
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Caracas 1060- Venezuela
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