Chalk one up for the plutocrats.
Fast-track legislation, known formally as Trade Promotion Authority, passed the Senate Wednesday afternoon, as expected. The vote was 60-38. Democrats voted for it. The bill is expected to be sent to President Obama's desk later today.
The legislation expedites the executive branch's ability to negotiate trade agreements. Once a deal is completed, Congress will have the chance to review it and vote it up or down, but without amendments and no chance to filibuster.
After the cloture motion closing debate on TPA passed in a 60-37 vote Tuesday, guaranteeing passage of the legislation today, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), a leading foe of fast-tracking, said:
The vote today—pushed by multi-national corporations, pharmaceutical companies and Wall Street—will mean a continuation of disastrous trade policies which have cost our country millions of decent-paying jobs.
American workers deserve a trade policy that works for them and not only for the CEOs of major multi-national corporations. We cannot continue trade policies which outsource good jobs to low-wage countries overseas and lead us into a race to the bottom.
Most observers believe passage of TPA means the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership, the largest and nearest to complete of 18 trade agreements under negotiation, will now pass Congress after the 90-day review period. Organizations such as Public Citizen Global Trade Watch nonetheless plan to keep fighting.
More on this vote can be found below the fold.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Sen. John Thune (R-ND), Roy Blunt (R-MO) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) all spoke Wednesday in favor of TPA. Sen. Al Franken (D-MN), Sen. Sherrod Brown (OH) and Sen. Jeff Merkely (D-OR) spoke against.
Merkley said the test of a good trade deal is whether it creates good-paying jobs for Americans or destroys them. He said the TPP deal "fails the test."
He noted the deal would mean more U.S. manufacturing jobs would be off-shored to places where labor laws are weak and pay low. For instance, he said, three TPP nations have very low minimum wages. Vietnam has a minimum wage of 60 cents to 70 cents an hour, Mexico's is 66 cents an hour and Malaysia $1.54, he said. But that's not the only problem. And when labor standards, unemployment insurance and wages are all taken into account, the skew on labor between the United States and those nations is about 20:1. That is a playing field steeply tilted against the United States.
He said that previous trade agreements have cost many jobs. For instance, in 2010, before the Republic of Korea Free Trade Agreement was signed, the U.S. trade deficit with South Korea was $10 billion. In 2014, after four years under RKFTA, the deficit was $25 billion. And the loss of American jobs was estimated to be as high as 150,000.
