[Imc] [PAFairTrade] VICTORY (for now) on Fast Track!!!! (fwd)

Tue Jul 31 19:49:24 UTC 2001

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2001 15:38:48 EDT
From: Michael Morrill <paconsumer at aol.com>
To: undisclosed-recipients:  ;
Subject: [PAFairTrade] VICTORY (for now) on Fast Track!!!!

(If this is true, then it is unlikely that Bush will go to the WTO meeting in
Qatar with Fast Track Authority.  You desreve the credit for your hundreds
and thousands of phone calls, emails, letters and visits to the PA Members of
Congress!  Congratulations on a job well done and a battle hard fought. -MM)

Vote on Bush's trade authority delayed in US House

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In a setback for the Bush administration, House
Republican leaders said Tuesday they did not have enough votes to give
President Bush the authority to negotiate broad new trade agreements and
planned to delay debate until September or later.

"The long and short of it is we don't have enough Democratic votes," House
Republican leader Dick Armey of Texas told reporters, announcing the delay.
"It looks now like it'll be September," he said.

The Republican leadership had previously hoped to hold a House vote on
so-called trade promotion authority by Friday, when Congress adjourns for a
month-long August recess.

Under the legislation, also known as "fast track," Congress gives up its
right to amend trade agreements negotiated by the executive branch and agrees
instead to vote only to approve or reject the overall pacts.

Supporters say without the authority countries would refuse to negotiate with
the United States because they know Congress could change any agreement that
is reached.

Bush wants the legislation to forge a free trade zone covering 34 countries
from Canada to Chile by 2005 and to help launch a new round of world trade
talks later this year.

A disagreement over whether trade agreements should contain protections for
workers has blocked renewal of fast track legislation since 1994. Most
Democrats support such provisions, but most Republicans fear they could
create new obstacles to trade and scare developing countries away from trade
talks.

Efforts to craft a bipartisan bill so far have been unsuccessful, although
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman William, a California Republican,
Tuesday invited Democrats to "sit down and work together" on the issue.

Key Democrats on the Ways and Means Committee, who have criticized a
Republican trade promotion authority bill for ignoring labor and
environmental concerns, are expected to outline some of their proposals this
week.

The debate spilled onto the sidewalks of Washington Tuesday, as opponents of
the trade legislation demonstrated outside the headquarters of the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce.

While the business group staged a pro-fast track rally inside its building
near the White House, about 300 members of the AFL-CIO, the Sierra Club and
other groups marched outside carrying signs that read, "Fast Track is the
Wrong Track."

After the rally, nearly 40 small business owners from the chamber were to
meet with Bush to discuss prospects for the trade promotion authority bill.
The group also plans to lobby members of Congress on the issue this week.

Last week, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat,
released a set of proposals that he hoped would form the basis for a
bipartisan bill.

Those proposals would increase the importance of labor and the environment in
future trade agreements, but give the Bush administration some flexibility in
negotiating how those terms would be enforced.

Aides say Baucus hopes to fashion those ideas into legislation by
mid-September. But whether the Senate votes on a fast track bill this bill
could depend on the House.

"It's a very fluid process," a Senate Finance Committee aide said. "If the
House turns down fast track, or if they can't pass it, I'm not sure how much
incentive there will be in the Senate in doing it."

14:06 07-31-01

Michael Morrill
Pennsylvania Consumer Action Network
122 South 5th Street
Reading, PA 19602
610-478-7888-tel
610-478-7457-fax
www.pcan.org

PA Fair Trade Campaign
c/o PCAN
122 S. 5th St.
Reading, PA 19602
610-478-7888
610-478-7457-fax
www.pcan.org

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