USBIC calls for moratorium on all new trade agreements

The U.S. Business & Industry Council (USBIC) is urging Congress to reject President Bush's request for a one-year renewal of fast-track trade negotiating authority.

Rather than continue fast track, the USBIC is calling for a complete moratorium on new trade agreements until the trade deficit is brought under control and balance is restored to the world trading system. According to the USBIC, when the U.S. begins considering new trade agreements again, they should be made as the Constitution requires, with full input from domestic interests through their elected representatives—not by the Executive branch with the guidance of multinational corporations.

According to USBIC President Kevin L. Kearns, passing fast track severely limits debate on new trade deals and denies Congress the right to amend them.

Says Kearns, “Renewing fast track would allow the President to stay on a policy course that has wracked up nearly $3.6 trillion in merchandise trade deficits, lost huge chunks of vital domestic manufacturing markets to imports, and hemorrhaged millions of high-wage manufacturing jobs to foreign competitors.”