May 7, 2009<\/p>\n
New Book: How to Build a New U.S.\u00a0Trade Consensus<\/b><\/p>\n
\u2018The Rise and Fall of Fast Track Trade Authority\u2019 Provides<\/i><\/b>\u00a0<\/b> Unprecedented Historical Review of Trade Authority Since Nation\u2019s Founding and a Path Forward<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 A new book released today by Public Citizen examines the colorful 220-year U.S. history of how the president and Congress have grappled with negotiating and implementing trade agreements given the constitutional separation of powers requirements. \u201cThe Rise and Fall of Fast Track Trade Authority\u201d by Todd Tucker and Lori Wallach concludes that Fast Track (the most recent mechanism Congress used to delegate its trade powers to the president) is a historical anomaly and counterproductive to the creation of good trade pacts.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wrote this book because when we did the research necessary to give ourselves a clear picture of Fast Track and the delegation systems before it, we found distorted, partial and inaccurate information in existing journalistic and scholarly work,\u201d said Tucker, research director of Public Citizen\u2019s Global Trade Watch division and a co-author of the book. \u201cMuch like the conventional wisdom on financial and trade deregulation, the prevailing narrative was that Fast Track was inevitable and necessary for the creation of trade agreements. We show that this is false and that, on the contrary, Americans have frequently changed the way that the executive and legislative branches have shared trade-policy powers.\u201d<\/p>\n
The book will be released today at an event at the New America Foundation in Washington, D.C.\u00a0It will be available in a variety of easily readable formats accessible at FastTrackHistory.org. The research and publication of this material was made possible by a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.<\/p>\n
The book explores how the process of designing U.S.\u00a0trade agreements has changed from 1789 to the present, examining five different regimes of trade-policy formation, the most recent culminating with the expiration of Fast Track during President George W. Bush\u2019s second term.<\/p>\n
Under the U.S. Constitution, Congress is responsible for crafting trade policy. Yet, over the past few decades, presidents have increasingly grabbed that power through Fast Track, which allows the executive branch to pick negotiating partners, determine trade pacts\u2019 contents and even sign the deals \u2013 all before Congress gets a vote.<\/p>\n
The book also notes that the trade agreements facilitated by Fast Track delve deeply into non-tariff, non-trade areas of policy such as investment, procurement and intellectual property. The book provides an\u00a0unprecedented documentation of the arguments that motivated both opponents and proponents of the expansion of executive power over trade agreements. It is the result of a three-year scholarly investigation into hundreds of primary and secondary sources, many referenced in the book for the first time.<\/p>\n
The book notes that growing numbers of voters and policymakers \u2013 including President Barack Obama and U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk \u2013 have opposed Fast Track and called for a more democratic process for creating a national globalization strategy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe look forward to a future new mechanism that can reduce political tension about trade policy and secure prosperity for the greatest number of Americans, while preserving the vital tenets of American democracy in the era of globalization,\u201d said Wallach, director of Public Citizen\u2019s Global Trade Watch division and a co-author of the new book. \u201cNow is the time to have the debate about a new trade model, and this new book provides an essential starting point.\u201d<\/p>\n
Advance Praise for \u201cThe Rise and Fall of Fast Track Trade Authority\u201d:<\/b><\/p>\n
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown<\/b>, Democrat of Ohio\u00a0and congressional trade-policy leader<\/i><\/p>\n
\u201cIf you wonder why trade policy over the past several years has reflected such narrow interests, look no further than the imbalanced trade policymaking process that is Fast Track. There is no other legislative mechanism with such extraordinary powers. Read this informed and engaging account of Fast Track\u2019s history and take action.\u201d<\/p>\n
U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud<\/b>, Democrat of Maine\u00a0and co-founder of House Trade Working Group<\/i><\/p>\n
\u201cMost people now in Congress weren\u2019t elected when President Nixon designed Fast Track to grab Congress\u2019 exclusive constitutional authority over U.S.\u00a0trade policy. President Obama discussed the need to replace Fast Track with a process that ensures a greater role for Congress. This book provides the lessons of 233 years of American trade authority history to inform Congress\u2019 efforts to create just such a new trade negotiating mechanism.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alfred E. Eckes<\/b>, eminent research professor in Contemporary History at Ohio\u00a0University, author of \u201cOpening America\u2019s Market: U.S. Foreign Trade Policy Since 1776,\u201d and former Reagan-appointed chairman and commissioner, U.S. International Trade Commission<\/i><\/p>\n
\u201cCandidates for federal office should be required to read and address the critical issues raised in this stimulating book. Wallach and Tucker make a persuasive case that the fast-track trade negotiating process produces agreements weighted to the interests of corporate giants and harmful to democratic governance and public safety. Their argument that a more democratic trade policy process is both possible and desirable merits the attention of public officials and thoughtful citizens everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
About the authors:<\/b><\/p>\n
Lori Wallach<\/b>\u00a0is the director and founder of Public Citizen\u2019s Global Trade Watch division and co-author of \u201cWhose Trade Organization? A Comprehensive Guide to the WTO,\u201d published by The New Press in 2004. One of the most widely cited trade and globalization policy experts, Wallach has testified before Congress, federal agencies and foreign legislatures. She graduated from Wellesley College and Harvard Law School.<\/p>\n
Todd Tucker<\/b>\u00a0is research director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch (GTW) division. He is author of dozens of reports on the WTO, NAFTA, and various other consumer and economic issues. A graduate of George Washington University, he received his masters in development economics from Cambridge University.<\/p>\n
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