US President George W Bush has called on Congress to renew a long-time provision giving the White House broad authority to rapidly negotiate and sign trade pacts, but which many labour unions and citizen advocacy groups say have denied the public, and Congress, sufficient time to grasp their implications.

Last Wednesday, the White House joined business groups to argue that the president’s expedited trade promotion authority, or TPA, is essential for the conclusion of the stalled multilateral trade talks known as the Doha Development Agenda at the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The US president made his request for renewed fast-track trade authority during a speech on the economy last Wednesday. He argued that global trade talks like Doha, launched in 2001, have the potential to lower trade barriers around the world, open new markets and reduce poverty. The TPA requires an expedited up-or-down vote in Congress on trade deals, which cannot be amended. The current fast-track authority expires on June 30.

“The only way America can complete Doha and make headway on other trade agreements is to extend trade promotion authority,” Bush said during his speech. “I ask Congress to renew it.” Many of the most controversial trade pacts, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, which established the WTO, have been negotiated under the fast-track authority. Some Democrats and grassroots groups worry that the TPA has in the past created a “race to the bottom”, with labour and environmental standards getting short shrift.

“Trade deals that fail to enhance the rights of workers inevitably lower standards of living in both the US and its trading partners,” Dave Foster, executive director of the Blue-Green Alliance, said. “This was the lesson of NAFTA where job loss became endemic in the industrial Midwest and workers’ living standards in Mexico deteriorated by 20 per cent. The Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) model is based on the failures of NAFTA, not correcting them.” In a statement, John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO, one of the largest US trade union federations, noted that the US has lost more than three million manufacturing jobs since 2001, “many to offshore outsourcing”.

On the side of the debate is an array of powerful private-sector groups like the Business Roundtable, the US Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), which issued statements last Wednesday endorsing President Bush’s call for Congress to extend the TPA, at least for the short-term. “If we achieve a breakthrough on the Doha Round in the next couple of months, we should consider approving a targeted and short-term one-year extension of TPA for the Doha Round to ensure it is completed within a year, while allowing a more fulsome and thoughtful debate on our broader trade agenda to proceed on a separate track, if necessary,” said Bill Reinsch, president of the National Foreign Trade Council. “TPA is critical for keeping the benefits of trade flowing, and the business community stands ready to work with the administration and Co-ngress to renew this authority,” said US Chamber President Tom Donohue. — IPS