Ways and Means Vote Foreshadows Dwindling Prospects of Fast Track

[MDOLAN <mdolan@citizen.org>]

  Public Citizen News Release
  
  Democrats Reject Archer Fast Track Bill
  Ways and Means Vote Foreshadows Dwindling Prospects of Fast Track
  
  Statement By Lori Wallach Director
  of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch
  on Today's Ways and Means Fast Track Vote
  
  Today's Ways and Means vote is a harbinger of the dwindling prospects for
  the passage of fast track. While Chairman Archer's bill was approved by the
  Ways and Means Committee as expected, the vote sends a clear signal that
  fast track lacks the bipartisan vote support to pass in the full Congress.
  
  The aggressive lobbying by President Clinton, Vice-President Gore and much
  of the Cabinet over the last two days resulted in only four Democratic 
  votes.
  Fast track is clearly on the ropes.
  
  The Archer bill is a fast track to the Stone Age strictly forbidding
  environmental, labor, and food safety measures in trade agreements.
  
  For the first time in U.S. history presidents would be affirmatively limited
  in even negotiating labor, food safety or environmental issues in trade
  talks and forbidden from including most such provisions under fast track
  legislation.  These new restrictions would continue for eight years.
  
  The Archer proposal is a radical roll-back from the fast track which
  Presidents Bush and Reagan each used once. (Fast track has only even been
  used 5 times.)  If this fast track proposal is ever adopted as U.S law, the
  Republicans will have succeeded in their crusade to eliminate environmental
  and labor measures from U.S. trade policy.  Regardless of how the Clinton
  Administration may try to spin this proposal, the fact that Chairman Archer
  supports it makes clear that environmental and labor measures are newly and
  strictly constrained. It is pathetic  that President Clinton has not opposed
  this retrograde Republican fast track backwards.
  
  We stand with the consensus of consumer, family farm, religious, labor and
  environmental groups  in urging Congress to vote against fast track.  The
  opposition to fast track has grown considerably over the last few weeks to
  include environmental organizations like the National Wildlife Federation
  and Audubon whose support for NAFTA was critical to its passage in 1993.
  
  ===== Comments by MDOLAN@CITIZEN (MDOLAN) at 10/08/97 6:11 pm
  The 4 Democrats who voted in favor of FT were Bob Matsui (CA), John Tanner 
  (TN), Jim McDermott (WA) and Wm. Jefferson (LA);
  and the 2 Republicans who voted against FT were Phil English (PA) and Jerry 
  Weller (IL).
  
  As the foregoing release suggests, the wind is out of the fast track sails 
  now.  By their own reckoning, the free trade lobby and GOP leadership 
  figured they needed more than 5 Democratic votes to generate any momentum in 
  anticipation of a floor vote.  They didn't achieve that threshold and now, 
  if Fair Trade activists will redouble their efforts and schedule some face 
  time with undecided members during the recess next week.
  
  This is good news.  But we're not done yet.
  
  
  
  ****************************************************************************
   /s/ Mike Dolan, Field Director, Global Trade Watch, Public Citizen
  
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