Fast Track:
the threat is renewed
Fast Track Info Packet:
(available soon as pdf)
What you can do
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Fast Track:
More overturning of laws YOU
worked hard to get passed
In September, President Bush will be asking Congress for Fast Track
(He's changed the name to "Presidential Trade Promotion Authority").
Don't let him push this through!
Call or write to your Congressional rep TODAY! (see below)
The Fair Trade Coalition decisively defeated Fast Track in both 1997 and 1998. Now Bush is attempting to push it through again, to expand NAFTA and WTO and their disastrous effects. All of the major environmental organizations are opposing Fast Track as are the AFL-CIO and the National Family Farm Coalition. This vote in the U.S. House of Representatives may come as soon as August 1st.
Tell your WA State Congressional Representative (and if you have time, call the entire delegation) to OPPOSE FAST TRACK! (see contact info at the end)
When talking to your legislators refer them to the Crane Bill (HR 2149). Rather than calling it “Fast Track” now, they’ve given this same process a new name-- “Presidential Trade Promoting Authority” in an effort to clean up its image.
What is Fast Track? What Happened when it passed in 1992?
Fast Track eliminates the usual checks and balances in our democratic process. It gives the President the authority to write sweeping trade agreements but Congress cannot hold public hearings on the trade legislation nor can Congress amend it. Our elected representatives CANNOT CHANGE what the President has negotiated. Congress CANNOT GET RID OF parts that benefit big profit makers (transnational corporations) but hurt working people. For the history of Fast Track see: http://www.citizen.org/pctrade/FastTrack/Fasthistminuspromo.htm
In 1992 when Congress gave President Clinton “Fast Track Authority” this process allowed for NAFTA and GATT/WTO to pass without either Congressional or public scrutiny. The consequence of this abdication of duty by Congress, eight years later, is that corporations have been granted unprecedented powers through NAFTA and WTO to run roughshod over national and local laws.
- Allowed by NAFTA’s Chapter 11, there are now over a dozen multimillion-dollar lawsuits by corporations against governments, simply because governments did their job and passed laws protecting their citizens and the environment. The Canadian corporation Methanex, in 1999, sued the U.S. government for $970 million because a California executive order phased out the sale of Methanex’s MTBE, a gasoline additive. California required the removal of MTBE from gasoline sold in the state because it is associated with human neurotoxiocological effects, such as nausea and headaches and is found to be an animal carcinogen with the potential to cause human cancer. See the following for more on the impact of NAFTA’s Chapter 11: http://www.essential.org/monitor/mm2001/01april/corp1.html
- With the passage of NAFTA and WTO, health and safety laws for food, water and consumer products have been overturned. Protections for environment and endangered species have been overruled as well.
See Fast Track packet articles
- Under NAFTA, using just the threat of moving to Mexico has been a leading cause of wage stagnation for U.S. workers because the demand for higher wages usually gets taken off the negotiating table. See the following for more on NAFTA and U.S. wage stagnation: http://workers.labor.net.au/86/c_historicalfeature_donations.html
Local elected officials are becoming aware of the way NAFTA and WTO have gutted our democratic process. Fourteen California Legislators, in a letter to the U.S. Trade Representative, questioned their loss of state sovereignty under WTO and NAFTA. The Oregon State Legislature recently passed a resolution to Congress stating similar concerns. See the California letter and Oregon resolution
Bush is now asking for the Fast Track Authority to expand the NAFTA and WTO's grant of power to corporarions to run roughshod over local laws.
The catastrophic consequences of NAFTA’s Chapter 11 and NAFTA’s lack of environmental and labor protections are finally being discussed in Congress. Representatives Pomeroy and Frost are circulating one sign-on letter and Representatives Brown and Norward are circulating another. Please ask your Congressperson to sign-on to both.
A Short History of Fast Track
1973 - President Nixon proposed Fast Track to grab executive power over US trade policy from Congress.
1973 to 1992 - Fast Track was used to pass several trade agreements but they were narrowly limited to traditional trade matters such as quotas and tariffs on goods.
1992 - President Clinton was granted Fast Track by Congress to pass NAFTA and GATT/WTO. In these agreements, however, the boundaries of what was included in “trade” pacts exploded as NAFTA and WTO rewrote huge swaths of US law. They required reshaping the domestic laws on food inspection, service sector regulation and intellectual property laws. These agreements also have binding tribunals that can enforce their rulings through requiring multi-million dollar penalties to be paid from taxpayers to corporations.
1997 & 1998 - President Clinton again asked for Fast Track but in 1997 due to the catastrophic reality of the NAFTA record, he couldn’t dare call for a vote. In 1998, a vote was taken but Fast Track failed overwhelmingly.
For more information see websites:
http://www.ssc.org
http://tradewatch.org
- Washington State Contacts:
- WASHINGTON STATE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVE MEMBERS:
Congressional Switchboard: (202) 456-2326
(Call Reps in DC toll free, compliments of the AFL-CIO: 1-800-393-1082 for duration of fast track fight)
1st Cong Dist Rep. Jay Inslee (D)
- Local: (425) 640-0233,Fax: (425) 776-7168
21905 - 64th Ave W., Ste. 101, Mountlake Terrace, WA 98043-2278
- Wash D.C.: (202) 225-6311,
308 Cannon HOB, Washington, D.C. 20515-0001
Fax: (202) 225-4420, e-mail: jay.inslee@mail.house.gov
2nd Cong Dist Rick Larsen (D)
- Local: (425) 252-3188/1-800-562-1385, Fax: (425) 252-6606
2930 Wetmore Ave. Ste. 9E, Everett, WA 98201-1385
- Wash D.C. (202) 225-2605, 1529
Longworth HOB, Washington, D.C. 20515-4702
Fax: (202) 225-4420
3rd Cong Dist Brian Baird (D)
- Local: (360) 695-6292, Fax: (360) 695-61971
220 Main Street, Suite 360, Vancouver, WA 98660-2962
- Wash D.C.: (202) 225-3536, 1721
Longworth HOB, Washington, D.C. 20515-4703
Fax: (202) 225-3478
4th Cong Dist Doc Hastings (R)
- Local: (509) 543-9396, Fax: (509) 353-2412
2715 St. Andrews Loop, Ste. D, Pasco, WA 99301-1972
- Wash D.C.: (202) 225-5816, 1323 Longworth HOB, Washington, D.C.
20515-4704 Fax: (202) 225-33251
5th Cong Dist George R. Nethercutt, Jr. (R)
- Local: (509) 353-2374, Fax: (509) 353-2412
UW Courthouse, W 920 Riverside, #594, Spokane, WA 99201-1008
- Wash D.C.: (202) 225-2006
223 Cannon HOB, Washington D.C. 20515-4704
Fax: (202) 225-3251
6th Cong Dist Norm Dicks (D)
- Local: (253) 593-6536/1-800-947-NORM, Fax: (253) 593-6551
1717 Pacific Ave., Ste. 2244, Tacoma, WA 98402-3234
- Wash D.C.: (202) 225-5916, 2467 Rayburn HOB, Washington, D.C. 20515-0001
Fax: (202) 226-1176
7th Cong Dist Jim McDermott (D)
- Local: (206) 553-7170, Fax: (206) 553-71751
809 Seventh Ave. #1212, Seattle, WA 98101-1399
- Wash D.C.: (202) 225-3106, 1035 Longworth HOB, Washington, D.C.
20515-0001
8th Cong Dist Jennifer Dunn (R)
- Local: (206) 275-3438, Fax: (206) 275-3437
2737 78th Ave SE #202, Mercer Island, WA 98040-2816
- Wash D.C.: (202) 225-7761, 1501 Longworth HOB, Washington, D.C.
20515-0001 Fax: (202) 225-7761
9th Cong Dist Adam Smith (D)
- Local: (253) 926-6683/1-888-Smith-09 Fax: (253) 926-1321
3600 Port of Tacoma Rd. E., #308, Tacoma, WA 98424-1042
- Wash D.C.: (202) 225-8901, 1
16 Cannon HOB, Washington, D.C. 20515-0001
Fax: (202) 225-5893
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