The debate in Congress over the World Trade
Organization and the granting of permanent normal
trade relations to China threatens to overshadow
ongoing negotiations to create a Free Trade Area for
the Americas.
Although the FTAA has not been in the headlines, its
creation is critically important to our future economic
well-being. When completed, it will be the world's
largest free trade area, with 800 million consumers and a
gross domestic product in excess of $10 trillion.
Whatever the outcome of the debate over the WTO
and China, the prospects for the FTAA are much better
than the current political environment would imply. In
fact, the FTAA negotiations are on track to be finished by
2005, as agreed to at the Miami and Santiago summits of
the hemisphere's heads of state in 1994 and 1998.
The pact, which would first radically cut tariffs
among the countries of the Americas and then ultimately
abolish them, is moving ahead because many of the
hemisphere's leaders believe it is vital to the Americas'
economic and social development.
Beyond its economic and societal benefits, the FTAA
possibly can stand as a Third Way model for expanding
global trade while at the same time addressing important
labor, environmental, and safety concerns.
In contrast to the protest-marred WTO ministerial
meeting in Seattle, four weeks earlier trade ministers
from throughout the hemisphere gathered without disruption
in Toronto as part of the ongoing FTAA negotiations.
After instructing their negotiators to begin
drafting the chapters that will constitute the FTAA, the
ministers decided to discuss labor and environmental
standards during the next round of FTAA talks.
As the FTAA example shows, the answer to achieving
greater global integration lies neither in surrender to
trade detractors nor in abdication to single-minded corporate
interests. Rather, trade expansion talks must incorporate
all viewpoints and achieve as many ends as
possible.
Pro- and anti-trade factions alike need to recognize
three immutable facts: Technological advances are fueling
global economic growth; these changes cannot be reversed;
and public concern for environmental and labor
standards cannot be ignored.
Clearly, negotiation is the key to reconciling opposing
views about trade expansion. And that is what's occurring
with the FTAA. Working groups dedicated to discussing labor and environmental concerns have
been made part of the FTAA process.
Congress should grant President Clinton's successor
fast-track authority to negotiate a fair and productive
FTAA. Without the FTAA, the United States will miss
three very important opportunities.
First, we will fail to create as many new jobs as we
possibly can for American workers. Despite protestations
to the contrary, the fact of the matter is that trade
creates, not eliminates, jobs.
Second, we will fall behind in the global economy
that we helped create. Unless we step up to lead the new
economy that our technology helped form, other trading
blocs will move in to take full advantage of new economic
opportunities in Latin America.
Third, we will possibly retard the ongoing integration
of the Americas. Economic integration of the Americas is
inevitable. The sooner it is accomplished, the more
quickly we can bring its benefits to those countries that
have lagged far behind the rest of the developing world.
Integration can bring better education and health to and
increase economic opportunities for the people of the
hemisphere.
The future of free trade is here, within our hemisphere.
We have the greatest economic potential of any
region in the world. Already, Mexico has surpassed
Japan in total trade volume due in great measure to the
enactment of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Canada and Mexico, respectively, are the United
States' top two trading partners. Trade with those nations,
after five years of free trade, constitutes 40 percent
of the United States' trade with the whole world.
While it is reasonable for the trading nations of the
world to focus on bringing China into the WTO, we
should not overlook the progress we have made on the
FTAA.
Once in effect, the FTAA can help bolster the democratic
principles that govern all the countries of our hemisphere,
save for Cuba. It can set the tone for future global
cooperation on trade. And it can help create a community
of the Americas in which economic integration, social
development, the strengthening of democracy, and environmental
responsibility stand as equal concerns.
