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Fast track forever? This has been a Golden Age of new trade agreements. One primary reason: U.S. fast track negotiating authority.

Article Excerpt
Judged by the number of new trade agreements concluded, the past four years has been the most productive period for U.S. trade negotiations in U.S. history. The global negotiations on a new World Trade Organization agreement have moved slowly--as was the case with the last round of global negotiations. But--since Congress extended fast track negotiating authority (now called Trade Promotion Authority) in 2002--the United States has concluded nine Free Trade Agreements. Another seven FTAs are in some stage of the negotiation process.

To put this in perspective, before this grant of fast track negotiating authority the United States had only entered into FTAs with Israel, Canada, Mexico, and Jordan. This list has now extended to almost twenty countries (some FTAs involve more than one trading partner), nearly a five-fold increase.

These FTAs have not all been with major trading partners, but still they do represent significant forward progress for U.S. trade policy in the face of lingering protectionist sentiments and at a time when global talks have slowed to a crawl. Markets in Latin America, the Middle East, Asia, and Oceania (Australia) have been opened to expanded trade with the United States.

But why has the sudden surge taken place in the past four-plus years? One key reason is certainly the grant of fast track negotiating authority to the President which ensures that trade agreements are voted on by Congress on an expedited basis without amendment. But that authority is set to expire in June of 2007, and the last time fast track expired it was almost eight years before it was revived. Before a similar dead calm swallows U.S. trade negotiations, it would be wise to settle on a formula for fast track that is permanent to avoid another long break between trade agreements to the detriment of both U.S. trade policy and global growth.

A SHORT HISTORY OF THE FAST TRACK

At its core, fast track is an unusual example of power-sharing between the legislative and executive branches of the U.S. government. International trade is an area in which the Constitution divides power between the Congress and the President, with the Congress explicitly given authority to "regulate commerce with foreign nations" and set tariffs, and the President authority to negotiate with foreign countries. Adding to this is an intra-Congress problem in that the House of Representatives is granted a initiating role in tax changes, including tariffs, but only the Senate has a role in ratifying treaties. Given this breakout, an international negotiation focused on trade clearly falls into an area where both the President...