Issue Position: Foreign Policy, Trade, and Defense - Trade Agreements & Fast Track Trade Negotiating Authority

Issue Position

The role trade agreements play is an important issue that has appropriately emerged as a national and international debate. The terms on which we conduct international trade are vital to answering some of the most fundamental questions about what our nation and the world will be like in the next century. I strongly believe that human rights, environmental protection and workers rights must be included as part of any trade negotiations and agreements.

That said, I have been repeatedly disappointed by recent trade agreements. I believe that our nation rushes into free trade agreements without taking the necessary care to assess the impact on our own workforce and the impact on the welfare of the population and environment of the foreign countries. I support a strong and healthy American manufacturing sector -- our country's economic success has been built in large part by our ability to make efficient, useful, quality products. Our technology industry, likewise, was critical to the economic boom of the 1990s. I believe that recent trade pacts have contributed to our loss of manufacturing jobs and high-tech IT positions, hurt our nation's trade competitiveness, and caused many corporations to relocate overseas, taking jobs with them.

I also am highly skeptical about fast track negotiating authority. Previous grants of fast track authority have resulted in trade agreements sorely lacking in human rights, environmental protection and workers rights provisions. Because fast track was granted, these agreements were not amendable by the Congress. Unless fast track authority clearly identifies these basic standards as minimum requirements for any agreement, I am likely to vote against providing fast track authority to any President.

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