Resolution on Fast Track Trade Negotiating Authority Exposed

The Resolution on Fast Track Trade Negotiating Authority was adopted by ALEC's Trade and Transportation Task Force at the Annual Meeting on August 21, 1998, and approved by the ALEC Board of Directors in September, 1998.

CMD's Bill Summary

From this 1998 resolution in support of "Fast Track" Trade Promotion Authority-- which was used to push a permanent normal trading relationship with China through Congress in 2000 with little discussion or debate-- to more recent resolutions in support of the proposed Colombia, Panama and Korea Free Trade Agreements, ALEC has consistently urged its members to support a radical "free trade" agenda. This free trade agenda has cost America millions of jobs as factories closed and moved overseas in search of cheaper labor. Since 2001, an estimated 2.4 million American jobs have been lost to China alone. Now a diverse array of service sector jobs, from accounting and tax preparation to health care and credit card servicing, are being off-shored under these agreements. Such free trade agreements also allow public health, consumer, environmental and worker safety rules to be challenged as "barriers to trade" in trade tribunals that operate outside the constraints of U.S. law. ALEC has also been a major promoter of the U.S. tobacco industry, which seeks to hook new generations of smokers on their products around the world. Reynolds Tobacco was the corporate co-chair of the International Relations Task Force of ALEC. ALEC has a trade resolution specifically targeting the European Union ban on Snus, a moist tobacco product often marketed to the young with fruit flavors. Reynolds produces Camel Snus in four flavors and is not happy that this dangerous product is banned in most of Europe. Note that ALEC maintains a list of "International Delegates," which are elected government officials around the world.

ALEC Bill Text

Summary

This resolution on Fast Track Trade Negotiating Authority recognizes that the President of the United States should be granted fast-track authority in order to continue job creation, economic growth, and expand economic prosperity through new trade policies.

Model Resolution

{Title, enacting clause, etc.}

WHEREAS everyone is deeply concerned with job creation, economic stability, and expanding economic prosperity throughout all of America; and

WHEREAS the U.S. is the biggest player in international trade, accounting for 12 percent of all world goods, exports, and 16 percent of all world service experts; and

WHEREAS U.S. exports account for about 12 percent of our Gross Domestic Product and the U.S. exported $937.6 billion in goods and services in 1996 with 1.8 million new trade-related jobs created over the last four years; and

WHEREAS growth in U. S. exports has been responsible for about one-third of our economic growth over the last ten years; and

WHEREAS between 1986 and 1994, jobs supported by exports rose 63 percent - more than four times faster than overall private industry job growth; and

WHEREAS many of these jobs depend upon continued access to foreign markets and increased openness of those markets; and

WHEREAS fast-track authority gives the President the negotiating authority necessary to conclude increasingly complex trade agreements to guarantee access for U.S. products in foreign markets which constitutes 96 percent of the worlds [SIC] consumers; and

WHEREAS our foreign competitors are aggressively moving forward to pursue their own economic interests through their own trade agreements; and

WHEREAS without fast-track authority the ability of the U.S. to expand and open markets around the world is being seriously constrained and U.S. businesses and farmers are losing market opportunities to foreign competitors; and

WHEREAS every United States President since 1974 has received fast-track trade negotiating authority from Congress;

NOW THEREFORE LET IT BE RESOLVED, that the State/Commonwealth of (Insert State) urges the U.S. Congress to enact the appropriate legislation to grant the President fast-track negotiating authority; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that copies of this Resolution be sent to each member of Congress.