On Friday, the U.S. House of Rep- resentatives will likely
consider legislation that will allow trade agreements to move through Congress
under special rules intended to speed up the approval process.
A great resource is
the Information Technology Industry Council's TechWonk Blog: http://bit.ly/1T9kqCi
Trade Promotion
Authority (TPA, also colloquially known as “fast-track”) will help grow
America’s economy and create new jobs by ensuring future trade agreements
benefit American workers, consumers, and businesses. Through the TPA bill,
Congress has the ability to tell U.S. Trade officials what goals they must meet
to benefit their constituents and local businesses.
The bill enjoys (and passed the Senate with) bipartisan
support – of a unique kind. The President has urged its passage, and many
pro-trade congressional Republicans and Democrats have said they would support
the bill. But some Republicans have indicated they’re on the fence, possibly
because they don’t
want to support what’s being referred to as “Obamatrade,” or, for that
matter, the President
himself, because it grants him “too much power.” Many Democrats oppose the
bill, some because they still
have NAFTA in mind, others because they’ve been threatened
by the labor lobby.
Since these complex issues are, as always, rife with
political rhetoric, perhaps it’s worth looking at two key myths about this
legislation.
Regarding the legislation granting the president some sort
of unilateral power, the fact is that Congress still must approve any trade
agreement negotiated by the president in an up or down vote. As the nonpartisan
Congressional Research Service notes, TPA represents a
“gentleman’s agreement” between the Congress and the president, in which the
legislative branch offers “fast track” rules if the executive branch agrees to
follow a detailed set of negotiating objectives and engages in a consultations
with Congress. (A fact that even
some members of Congress apparently didn’t realize.) And of course it’s worked for decades;
Congress has endowed every U.S. president since FDR at least some trade
negotiating authority.
But those are just Congress’ arguments. Others attacking the
legislation say that TPA (and its accompanying Pacific-rim Trade Agreement, or
TPP) only benefits large corporations at the expense of workers. This specious
reasoning vastly overlooks the fact that innumerable growing businesses and
industries, both large and small, will be hurt if the bill fails. In 2012
alone, for example, the U.S. technology industry exported more than $85.5
billion worth of technology goods to TPP countries.
Passage of this critical legislation should be determined by
careful consideration of the facts, not by partisan rhetoric and unfounded
claims. Luckily, you can help in this
effort by taking two minutes to send a letter to your Representative and urge them to pass this important
legislation. Join us and speak out in support of jobs, growth, and prosperity.
The vote is Friday, so please act now.
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