Two months ago, President Clinton asked Congress to renew his "fast track" authority to negotiate trade agreements. But "fast track", the ability of the President to send to Congress a trade agreement only for a simple up or down vote, is facing stiff opposition from members of his own party. After a background report by Tom Bearden, Margaret Warner discusses the fast track debate with four experts.
TOM BEARDEN: A little less than two months ago President Clinton asked Congress to pass the cornerstone of his fall agenda.
PRESIDENT CLINTON: I'm asking the Congress to renew the President's traditional trade authority to negotiate trade deals, to open more American markets for goods and service from our country.
"Fast track" explained.
TOM BEARDEN: It's called "fast track" trade authority and would give the president the power to negotiate trade agreements with foreign countries without the threat that Congress would reopen and amend them. After an agreement is signed, Congress would have 90 days to accept or reject the pact. White House officials say more countries would be willing to negotiate trade deals if the president had fast track authority. Fast track is 20 years old and has been used by every president since Gerald 
Ford to negotiate agreements like the 1992 North American Free Trade Agreement and the 1994 General Agreement on Trades and Tariffs known as GATT. But fast track authority expired in 1994. President Clinton is trying to win it back so he can negotiate new agreements like an expansion of NAFTA to include Chile. But the President has run into some opposition.
AD ANNOUNCER: Since NAFTA, hundreds of thousands of American jobs exported.
Opposition to "fast track".
TOM BEARDEN: Organized labor, which supported Mr. Clinton in last year's election, is running a nationwide ad campaign and members of his own party are working to kill the legislation. They're demanding the president include environmental and child labor standards in future agreements. And critics in Florida and Texas claim people are losing jobs because of the existing NAFTA and fear that would happen again if the President is free to negotiate new agreements. In an effort to answer those criticisms, earlier this week President Clinton promised to emphasize environmental and labor issues in any new negotiations. Ironically, on Capitol Hill, Republican leaders are supporting the president, as are a coalition of business executives, who have mounted their own national ad campaign.
AD ANNOUNCER: Sixty-two workers here can tell you exports mean jobs and "made in the USA" means it's a job well done. Fast track trade agreements. America works.
TOM BEARDEN: The president got good news on Tuesday. Fast track authority cleared a major hurdle in the Senate when it voted to move forward on the legislation. A final vote may occur as early as this weekend. Yesterday, the president tried to further assuage critics by seeking $750 million to retrain workers who have lost their jobs as a result of earlier trade agreements. And today at the opening of the George Bush Presidential Library in Texas, Mr. Clinton got a boost from some of his predecessors.
Support from his predecessors.
GEORGE BUSH: He is doing the right thing. The Congress must support him in the House of Representatives, as they did in the Senate, and I am passionately committed to his position, President Clinton's position, on free and fair trade.
JIMMY CARTER: --countries--President Clinton visited recently--have already signed separate trade agreements with Mexico, with Canada, and with Europe, and I think, first of all, we're going to get left out if we don't sign fast track and get the negotiations done. And secondly, it's going to be a slap in the face for our natural friends and allies in Latin America. The last three or four days I've been calling as many Democratic Congress members as I could--find the other Democrats, to come and support fast track.
PRESIDENT CLINTON: The strong position that President Bush, President Carter, and President Ford has taken this--immeasurably helpful. You know we have a lot of opposition, and I think you all know where it's coming from. I wish we could have a secret vote in the Congress; we'd pass it three or four to one. But we're going to do the very best we can, and we're very helpful.
TOM BEARDEN: Back in Washington, Minority Leader Gephardt held a press conference to re-emphasize his opposition to fast track.
REP. RICHARD GEPHARDT, Minority Leader: If we have standards, if we insist on Brazil's standards or Mexico's standards, or Argentina's standard, to be properly enforcing their country, then everybody who's there trying to do business has to compete on those standards. And that's what this is about. This is a new trade policy. This is a modernization of our trade policy, to try to insert into the trade discussion issues like human rights and worker rights and environmental rights and drug interdiction and food safety.
TOM BEARDEN: The House is scheduled to vote on the issue Friday afternoon.
A RealAudio version of this segment is available.
