Buying fast-track votes

[MDOLAN <mdolan@citizen.org>]

  Journal of Commerce
  Sept. 15, 1997
  Guest Opinion
  WASHINGTON BUREAU
  Buying fast-track votes
  
  As the White House searches for votes in Congress to
  secure "fast track" trade negotiating authority for President
  Clinton, the administration is suddenly becoming much
  more sensitive to the demands of lawmakers, especially in
  the trade area.
  
  For example, since 1994, senators and representatives
  could get barely a dime out of the North American
  Development Bank, created along with the North
  American Free Trade Agreement to fund environmental,
  worker and other development efforts. Then, suddenly, in
  July, the Treasury Department issued a list of communities
  eligible to receive special assistance to deal with Nafta
  worker dislocation.
  
  After nearly four years in which the bank loaned no money
  for such community assistance, a U.S. trade official told
  House members recently the first such loans will be
  approved in the next week or two.
  
  Sam Gibbons, former Democratic chairman of the House
  Ways and Means Committee, said the fast-track fight is
  about buying votes.
  
  "They're all just lining up for something, a bridge or a dam
  or even a judge," said Mr. Gibbons, now working as a
  lobbyist.
  
  * * * *
  
  Farm groups, which ardently support fast track, are among
  those that plan to take full advantage of the administration's
  frantic search for votes in Congress.
  
  The agricultural sector was out front in supporting the
  president on Nafta and is arguably the segment of the
  economy that has most benefited in recent years from free
  trade.
  
  That means the White House will put American farmers
  front and center in the debate. And, says one lobbyist, it
  also means this is a good time for farmers to press trade
  complaints against other countries. The U.S. Trade
  Representative's office has recently announced its support
  of U.S. producers in disputes with Mexico and the
  Philippines.
  
  * * * *
  
  Opponents of fast track have their own plans. In a
  telephone conversation with AFL-CIO President John
  Sweeney to set strategy for the impending battle on Capitol
  Hill, a leading House critic of Nafta, Rep. Marcy Kaptur,
  D-Ohio, offered this idea:
  
  "Let's get 2,000 or 3,000 people together -- victims of
  trade -- and put hands together around the White House,"
  Rep. Kaptur said. Recounting her proposal at a "teach in"
  last week by opponents of fast track, Rep. Kaptur said she
  thinks the only way to change the present course of trade
  policy in Washington is to have a "very large public
  demonstration of dissatisfaction."
  
  * * * *