May, 07 2009, 02:09pm EDT
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New Book: How to Build a New U.S. Trade Consensus
‘The Rise and Fall of Fast Track Trade Authority’ Provides Unprecedented Historical Review of Trade Authority Since Nation’s Founding and a Path Forward
WASHINGTON
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. "The Rise and
Fall of Fast Track Trade Authority" 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.
"We 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," said Tucker, research
director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch division and a
co-author of the book. "Much 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."
The book will be released today at an event at the New America
Foundation in Washington, D.C. It 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.
The book explores how the process of designing U.S. trade 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's second term.
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'
contents and even sign the deals - all before Congress gets a vote.
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 unprecedented 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.
The book notes that growing numbers of voters and policymakers -
including President Barack Obama and U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk
- have opposed Fast Track and called for a more democratic process for
creating a national globalization strategy.
"We 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," said Wallach, director of
Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch division and a co-author of the new
book. "Now is the time to have the debate about a new trade model, and
this new book provides an essential starting point."
Advance Praise for "The Rise and Fall of Fast Track Trade Authority":
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio and congressional trade-policy leader
"If 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's history and take action."
U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud, Democrat of Maine and co-founder of House Trade Working Group
"Most people now in Congress weren't elected when President Nixon
designed Fast Track to grab Congress' exclusive constitutional
authority over U.S. trade 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' efforts to create just such a new
trade negotiating mechanism."
Alfred E. Eckes, eminent research professor in
Contemporary History at Ohio University, author of "Opening America's
Market: U.S. Foreign Trade Policy Since 1776," and former
Reagan-appointed chairman and commissioner, U.S. International Trade
Commission
"Candidates 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."
About the authors:
Lori Wallach is the director and founder of Public Citizen's
Global Trade Watch division and co-author of "Whose Trade Organization?
A Comprehensive Guide to the WTO," 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.
Todd Tucker is 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.
Public Citizen is a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization that champions the public interest in the halls of power. We defend democracy, resist corporate power and work to ensure that government works for the people - not for big corporations. Founded in 1971, we now have 500,000 members and supporters throughout the country.
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Jul 26, 2024
A group of Democratic U.S. House members on Friday unveiled legislation "aimed at bolstering protections for America's workers and ensuring accountability for employers who flout labor and employment laws."
The Labor Enforcement to Securely (LET'S) Protect Workers Act was introduced by Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.)—the ranking member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce—and House Labor Caucus Co-Chairs Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), Donald Norcross (D-N.J.), and Steven Horsford (D-Nev.).
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"That promise is broken," they contended. "Recent shocking revelations about massive increases in the number of children illegally overworked and trafficked into dangerous jobs—just over 85 years since the passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act, which was enacted to eliminate that very problem—is the latest example of the ways that this promise to America's workers is broken."
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Patrick Thompson, a Ukraine researcher at Amnesty, said Friday that "in every region in Ukraine that was formerly occupied by Russia, we have seen evidence of civilians killed and injured by antipersonnel mines left behind by Russian forces."
"They are a daily, deadly threat to civilians. Some have been deliberately placed in civilian homes where they maim and kill," Thompson highlighted. "There must be an effective investigation into all such incidents as possible war crimes."
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Thompson called on the international community to "commit to sustained financial and technical assistance to help Ukraine get rid of a danger that continues to wreck lives and livelihoods," and to continue fighting for an end to the use of the weapons.
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Despite pushback from the United States delegation, finance ministers at a meeting of the G20 countries in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday agreed on the need to develop a global taxation system in which the richest in the world are taxed at a higher rate—potentially unlocking hundreds of billions of dollars annually to help close the international wealth gap.
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"For the first time in history, the world's largest economies have agreed to cooperate to tax the ultra-rich," said Susana Ruiz, tax policy lead for Oxfam. "Finally, the richest people are being told they can't game the tax system or avoid paying their fair share. Governments have for too long been complicit in helping the ultra-rich pay little or zero tax. Massive fortunes afford the world's ultra-rich outsized influence and power, which they wield to shield, stash, and supersize their wealth, undercutting democracy and widening inequality."
An Oxfam study released ahead of this week's meetingfound that the richest 1% of people in the world increased their fortunes by $42 trillion over the past decade, while taxation fell to "historically" low rates.
Ruiz called on G20 heads of state to "go further than their finance ministers" at the G20 Summit in November "and back concrete coordination: agreeing on a new global standard that taxes the ultra-rich at a rate high enough to close the gap between them and the rest of us."
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Zucman expressed hope that the agreement between the G20 finance ministers marked a "historic" moment, and called it "an important step in the right direction."
"Our proposal for a common minimum tax on billionaires is now on the map. G20 finance ministers have started to engage with it—and there is no going back," said Zucman. "In its declaration, the G20 finance ministers commit to important preliminary steps. They need to do more and commit to a coordinated minimum tax on the super-rich. We know that it is practically doable—we know the solutions exist. And I'm confident, because there is overwhelming popular demand everywhere to get there."
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The findings released this week by Oxfam highlighted polling that "consistently" found people across the world support raising taxes on the richest individuals.
"Eighty percent of Indians, 85% of Brazilians and 69% of people polled across 34 countries in Africa support increasing taxes on the rich," said the group. "Nearly three-quarters of millionaires polled in G20 countries support higher taxes on wealth, and over half think extreme wealth is a 'threat to democracy.'"
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"To take this forward, G20 should support work on this at the Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation currently being negotiated at the United Nations," said Jayati Ghosh, co-chair of the ICRICT.
A U.N. committee is scheduled to submit "terms of reference" regarding a tax convention framework in August, and a final vote on the framework is expected by the end of 2025.
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