*EPF405 03/22/01
Text: Senator Grassley on Fast Track Trade Authority Bill
(Labor, environmental issues not mentioned) (560)

Senator Charles Grassley, Republican chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, has welcomed the introduction of a bill to restore fast track trade negotiating authority for the president.

In a March 22 statement Grassley said the bill introduced by Republican Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas brings into focus the need for fast track, which the Bush administration is now calling trade promotion authority.

"I'm committed to working on a bipartisan basis to make sure this gets done," Grassley said although neither his statement nor Roberts' bill address the labor and environmental standards issues that most Democrats say must be included.

Instead Grassley cited as a model the fast track language in the 1988 Trade Act, which passed years ahead of the labor and environment debate.

Under fast track, Congress restricts itself only to approve or reject a negotiated trade agreement, within strict time limits and without amendments. The 1988 Trade Act grant of fast track expired in 1994. Since then attempts to reauthorize fast track have failed over labor and environmental issues.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick has supported a strategy of wrapping the fast track issue into a broad legislative package containing trade agreements with Jordan and Vietnam and renewal of trade preferences for Andean countries. Top Democrats in both the Senate and U.S. House of Representatives have denounced that strategy.

Following is the text of Grassley's statement:

(begin text)

[Thursday, March 22, 2001]

Sen. Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Committee on Finance, made the following comment on Sen. Pat Roberts' legislation to renew the President's fast track trade negotiating authority.

"I welcome Senator Roberts' effort to focus the Senate's attention on the importance of renewing the President's trade negotiating authority this year. As I've said many times, the President's lack of trade negotiating authority harms the vital national interests of the United States, because it undermines our credibility at the negotiating table. This isn't a partisan issue. It's an American issue. Whether farmers and business people have greater access to world markets, which we can win at the negotiating table only if our trading partners take us seriously, directly affects the jobs and livelihoods of all Americans. We have to get trade negotiating authority renewed this year so we can give our economy a much-needed boost of confidence.

"This is a top priority for me this year. I'm committed to working on a bipartisan basis to make sure this gets done. I'm open to any reasonable proposal. I suggest one place to start is the very reasonable 1988 legislation renewing the President's trade negotiating authority, which was approved by an overwhelmingly bipartisan 85-11 vote in the Senate. This legislation met the criteria I want to see. It took a comprehensive approach to negotiations. It renewed the President's negotiating authority for a reasonable length of time. It covered both multilateral and bilateral negotiations. It set forth a number of specific negotiating objectives and required the President to tell Congress exactly what progress was made in achieving those objectives.

"I look forward to working with Senator Roberts, and all members of the Senate, in writing legislation we can send to the President this year."

(end text)

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