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exporter of agricultural products--lacks the ability to implement a final agreement, it

is difficult to imagine those negotiations succeeding. A historic opportunity to bring

free trade to a sector that has long known protection and government control may be

lost for years to come.

·

The Uruguay Round calls for negotiations to lower barriers to trade in a number of

important sectors, such as maritime transport, construction and engineering,

professional services, and government procurement. Fast-track authority will

probably be necessary for any such agreements that require a change in U.S. law.

Fast-track authority is about much more than adding Chile to NAFTA. The

agreements that could be negotiated under fast track open the dazzling possibility of free

trade with the world's most dynamic economies within the next 15 years, and a dramatic

reduction in barriers in those sectors in which the United States has historically enjoyed a

competitive edge.

Conclusion

Without fast-track authority for the president, the United States will be unable to

join in bilateral, regional, and multilateral agreements to lower barriers to trade. And

without those agreements, momentum toward freer trade could be in jeopardy. Americans

would lose the potential benefits of greater liberty and prosperity that would come from

expanded opportunities to trade.

In a better world, governments would leave their citizens free to engage in trade

with people in other nations. Trade agreements would be unnecessary. But because

protectionism remains an option, trade agreements serve as useful tools to create

domestic support for free trade while restricting the ability of governments unilaterally to

raise trade barriers.

Congress should reject any attempt to tie trade agreements down with demands

for tougher labor and environmental rules. Such demands will prove ineffective in

achieving their goals while undermining efforts to liberalize trade.

Passage of a clean fast-track bill will advance the cause of free trade, enhancing

the liberty and living standards of people in the United States and the rest of the world.

Notes

1. Polling the public on trade can be especially tricky. According to a story in Roll Call

on Sept. 4, 1997, p. 16, a poll in late July for NBC News/Wall Street Journal found 61

percent of those asked opposed to fast-track authority. But another poll that month for the

Democratic Leadership Council, in which the question differed slightly, found 53 percent

in support.

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