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the Mexican government to nationalize its banks and raise trade barriers, the present

government successfully resisted backsliding. Just as NAFTA supporters on both sides of

the border had predicted, the trade treaty helped to lock in Mexico's broader economic

reforms.

Food Safety No Cause for Alarm

Opponents of free trade and fast track have made an issue of food safety, arguing

that expanded agricultural trade with Mexico and other less-developed nations has

compromised U.S. health standards. The right response to any safety concerns should be

to improve inspection procedures, not to deny ourselves the obvious benefits of being

able to buy a wider range of fresh fruits and vegetables throughout the year at lower

prices. After all, food can pose a health hazard whether it is imported or produced

domestically, as the recent example of infected meat from a Nebraska plant

demonstrated. Using food safety as an excuse to close our doors to agricultural imports

could boomerang to hurt U.S. food exporters, who have also been accused of exporting

allegedly unsafe food.19

More Than NAFTA II

Without the renewal of fast-track authority, the United States will be unable to

move ahead on free-trade initiatives. Either the talks themselves will go nowhere, or

other nations will determine their shape while the U.S. government sits on the sideline.

Here are the major trade initiatives that depend on fast-track authority:

·

In December 1994, President Clinton and the heads of 33 other nations in the Western

Hemisphere met in Miami and agreed to pursue a Free Trade Area of the Americas by

2005. The agreement would remove artificial barriers to the movement of goods,

services, and capital throughout the hemisphere, in effect extending NAFTA to the

southern tip of South America. The United States has also pledged to Chile, the most

advanced and liberalized economy in Latin America, that it would be first in line to

become a full member of NAFTA. Without fast-track authority, Canada and the

nations of Latin America will continue to negotiate free trade agreements among

themselves, leaving the United States to confront discriminatory tariffs against its

exports.

·

In November 1994, representatives of the 18 members of the Asia Pacific Economic

Cooperation forum agreed to eliminate barriers to trade among the region's more

advanced economies by 2010, and among all APEC members by 2020. Without fast

track, the United States would be unable to participate in any formal negotiations for

the mutual elimination of trade barriers in a region that includes the world's fastest

growing markets.

·

Multilateral talks on eliminating barriers to trade in agriculture will begin in 1999, as

agreed in the Uruguay Round of GATT. If the United States--the world's largest

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