Support Resolution to Oppose “Fast Track” Let’s Quit Trading Our Jobs Away
On June 30, 2007 the Fast Track Trade Promotion Authority is set to expire. Ohio workers deserve an end to the status quo trade agreements that have devastated our jobs here in Ohio.
Ohio Senate Concurrent Resolution 4 (SCR4 – Sen. D. Miller) and House Concurrent Resolution 17 (HCR17 - Rep. Skindell) ask Congress to oppose Fast Track.
The connection between unfair trade and Ohio jobs is very real – over 190,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost. Far too many workers seek help through Trade Adjustment Assistance
programs validating the linkage.
Fast Track allows the federal executive branch to select our trading partner nations, then negotiate and sign agreements prior to Congress having any vote. Consequently, Fast Track undermines vital checks and balances our Founders wrote into the Constitution.
Fast Track effectively empowers federal negotiators to “legislate” in ways that internationally preempt state and local policy prerogatives. Federal negotiators are advised by
500-plus business representatives who have access to
classified negotiating documents, while our nation’s lawmakers and the public are excluded.
Fast Track makes it all too easy for federal executive-branch negotiators to ignore elected state lawmakers and officials, even though trade negotiations now cover an enormous array of non-trade regulatory areas under the jurisdiction of state and local governments.
International trade is a reality, but it cannot come at the cost of undermining our ability to promote Americans’ health and
economic well-being, our environment and our national security. The upcoming expiration of Fast Track provides a unique opportunity to replace the current system with one that would include mandatory negotiating objectives set by Congress to determine some vital components of U.S. trade agreements.
