The AFL-CIO labor federation asked Congress on Thursday to block the renewal of Trade Promotion Authority, the legislation that gives the White House extra leverage to get trade deals through Congress.
The labor group said the legislation, also known as “fast track,” fails to meet “basic standards of transparency and democracy.”
“Current law fails to hold the executive branch accountable for achieving negotiating objectives, addressing the job-killing U.S. trade imbalance, or ensuring that trade deals do not continue the current race to the bottom in terms of pay and benefits, worker rights, environmental protections, affordable medicines, food safety rules, and other vital protections for working families,” the AFL-CIO said in a letter Thursday to all members of Congress.
The law is officially named the Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability Act. It effectively hobbles Congress’ ability to weigh in on trade issues by limiting lawmakers to a single up or down vote in approving any international deal that the president sends over. Lawmakers cannot amend it or tweak the deal in any way.
The law has been around with some modifications since 1974. Presidents in both parties have argued it is crucial to their ability to negotiate deals since it allows them to assure their trade counterparts that any deal that they reach won’t be picked apart by Congress.
The law will automatically renew for another three years starting in July, meaning President Trump will have the authority for the rest of his term. The renewal is based a formal request the administration made to Congress in March. Lawmakers can object to its renewal, but no effort, not even a symbolic one, has been mounted or even threatened.
The AFL-CIO has been cautiously supportive of Trump’s trade agenda, applauding his effort to reopen the North American Free Trade Agreement to negotiations and to impose steel and aluminum tariffs, although it has complained the administration has been haphazard in its approach.
However, the AFL-CIO has long opposed fast track and free trade deals in general, seeing them as threats to domestic industries. Giving Congress more leverage to reject deals would help fix that, it argued Thursday.
“Renewing the current inadequate trade negotiating authority would ensure this bad law remains in place until 2021. The shortcomings of fast track are all the more salient given the current effort to renegotiate the failed North American Free Trade Agreement … It would be a shame if the inadequate negotiating objectives in current law were used as an excuse to maintain trade rules that favor corporate profits over good jobs and high wages,” it said.
