So much for the new spirit of bipartisanship on trade policy offered by Congressional Democrats this past spring. That olive branch of a commitment to work with the Administration to pass newly inked and important bilateral free trade agreements with Peru, Panama, Colombia and Korea—agreements that included new provisions on labor and environment standards demanded by Democrats—got rudely yanked as Congress left town for the July 4^th recess.

Implicit in this deal, described by Speaker Nancy Pelosi in May as “a new day in trade policy,” was an agreement to at least talk about terms for extending presidential Trade Promotion Authority (popularly known as “fast track”) which expired on June 30. This congressionally conferred authority allowed the White House to negotiate all details of a trade deal and submit it for a simple up or down vote in Congress, ensuring that America can present a consistent position during negotiations. Without it our negotiating partners won’t come to the table. Without it the U.S. cannot effectively lead the Doha Round to a successful conclusion or strike new two-way or regional pacts to open up foreign markets to sell more U.S. goods and services.

'American workers cannot afford for us to hang up a Closed for Business sign.’

All that aside, Pelosi, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel, and Trade Subcommittee Chairman Sandy Levin announced on June 29^th that the Colombia and Korea agreements were effectively dead and that fast track was basically not in the cards. They also said, apropos of the Peru and Panama agreements, that they now will not support the deals unless domestic labor laws in those countries are changed to comply with the labor standards in the FTA before the deal takes effect.

The White House, including United States Trade Representative (USTR) Susan Schwab, didn’t see this double-cross move coming, especially since Rangel, with the presumed blessing of Pelosi and others, had been negotiating in good faith with the Office of the USTR about the labor and environmental language. While the negotiations were intense, Rangel and Senate Democrats won the day and got just about everything they asked for. One would think this a truly unique political victory engineered under the guise of honest-to-goodness Executive-Legislative branch bipartisanship. But no, somewhere along the line, House leaders concluded that they had bit off more than they and the rank and file Democratic caucus could chew. Trade votes, they quickly remembered, are politically costly, and the bipartisan trade deal just didn’t seem as worthwhile as they once thought. As a result, they have retreated from their promises.

This is both bad faith and pure political obstructionism. For the Bush Administration, it couldn’t come at a worse time. Amid the seemingly intractable situation with the war in Iraq, presidential poll numbers in the tank and a legislative drubbing on the immigration bill, the one bright spot the White House was counting on was success in advancing the trade agenda. Extension of fast track authority was central to this plan. By declaring fast track dead for the foreseeable future, Congress has effectively stopped the President from trying for a breakthrough in the Doha Round of trade talks. U.S. trade diplomats are now left without the necessary imprimatur of American “good faith and credit” negotiating authority required by our trading partners. More importantly, the U.S. will now be left in the dust, as our trading partners and some of our biggest competitors, such as the EU and China, blaze ahead with new market opening bilateral and regional agreements of their own. In the end, the losers are our own farmers and manufacturers, whose products, services and intellectual property are left at a competitive disadvantage.

This can’t be what Speaker Pelosi had in mind when she declared in May,

Nearly 50 years ago, President John F. Kennedy advanced a new trade policy that cemented Democrats as the party of free and fair trade. Today, we build on that tradition to announce a new bipartisan breakthrough for fair trade - where we expand opportunities for American business, workers and families. Our economic future rests upon our ability to open new markets for U.S. goods and services so that we can continue to capitalize upon the innovative spirit of the American people.

And back in March, Ways ands Mean Chairman Rangel said his “New Trade Policy for America" would have as one of its major priorities to “Open major markets to create new opportunities for U.S. workers, farmers and businesses,” to “reinvigorate [the] role for Congress, including as a first step, full partnership in the WTO Doha negotiations on agriculture, manufacturing, services and dispute settlement and [to] strengthen rules on unfair trade.”  

Now that Congress is back from their Independence Day break, it would behoove them to reconsider their position. On the table are four major trade agreements—three with Colombia, Panama and Peru, some of our staunchest democratic allies in Latin America, and one with Korea, the third largest economy in Asia. These are all important new commercial opportunities for American exports. They are not perfect by any means—no trade agreement is—particularly, the automotive market access provisions in the Korea deal could be better. That will be improved on over time, as most critics concede. Moreover, all these agreements now include language addressing enforceable labor and environment standards. This was the deal forged by both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue. In that spirit Congress should do the right thing and grant an extension of fast track or trade promotion authority to President Bush and his trade team. As Ambassador Schwab has stated, “American workers cannot afford for us to hang up a ‘Closed for Business sign.’” Congress knows this. They can count on being lobbied hard by the U.S. business community to retract their misguided policy position, and to approve these key agreements and extend TPA for this Administration and the next.

P. Welles Orr is Senior International Trade Advisor at Miller & Chevalier Chartered in Washington. He served as Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Congressional Affairs under the first President Bush, working successfully to renew TPA. He also lobbied successfully for TPA renewal in 2002.

Image credit: Photo by Flickr user soldiersmediacenter.