Clinton Crashes Again on a Fast Track

President Clinton’s hot pursuit of renewed “fast track” trade authority hit a roadblock erected by his fellow Democrats. There is a lesson here for the White House, which Monday had to postpone a House vote on the matter for the second time this session. The president allowed the issue to be muddied and hijacked by Democrats who claim they were double-crossed after they backed him on a fast-track deal for the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1993.

And so renewal of fast-track trade authority has been tabled again, until next year. The embarrassing setback at least provides time for heads to cool and reason to prevail among Democrats. Ultimately, fast track should be approved. International trade has been and will continue to be an engine of U.S. economic growth.

Fast-track authority allows a president to negotiate broad trade agreements over which Congress has a simple yes or no vote. The agreements cannot be amended by either chamber, so U.S. trading partners are assured their agreements with the administration will be respected. Since 1974, Congress has granted every president such authority.

In this Congress, most House Democrats have supported the organized labor and environmental groups that oppose fast track, in part on grounds that cheaper foreign labor and lower environmental standards give U.S. trade partners an unfair advantage. These Democrats believe that Clinton did not keep promises concerning strong labor and environmental conditions on the NAFTA agreement with Mexico and Canada.

The Clinton administration erred in its timing as well as its strategy on fast track. It waited, despite contrary advice from Republican leaders, until autumn to push for the agreement and then focused its campaign only at the last minute. By then political opponents had moved in.

This congressional round over fast track is indirectly tied to the administration’s goal of bringing Chile into NAFTA. Over a longer term, Clinton has said he wants authority to seek a much broader free trade agreement for the Americas and to craft a pact with Asian-Pacific nations, which have promised to have free trade in the region by 2010.

With good reason, fast track has drawn bipartisan support in the past. Washington cannot afford to have complicated trade alliances pecked apart in Congress by partisan or geographical meddling. Clinton will have to try again, and try harder and smarter.