Copyright 2002 Star Tribune  
Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)
June 30, 2002 Sunday Metro Edition
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 45A

LENGTH: 780 words

HEADLINE: For the sake of American democracy, stop 'fast track'

BYLINE: Larry Weiss

BODY:
Two hundred twenty-six years ago, this country's founders
asserted in the Declaration of Independence the then-radical
concept that governments derive "their just powers from the consent
of the governed." It was this concept that Abraham Lincoln
characterized nearly a century later at Gettysburg as government of
the people, by the people, and for the people.

On this Independence Day, however, Congress is preparing to vote
on a major piece of trade legislation - "fast track" trade
promotion authority - that would profoundly diminish the right of
citizens to use our democratic institutions to govern in the public
interest. At stake is the ability of cities, counties, states or
the federal government to protect public health and safety, clean
water, and a host of other public purposes.

This issue had been simmering in the background with limited
public awareness until a Bill Moyers PBS report, "Trading
Democracy," (www.pbs.org/now/politics/tradingdemocracy.html) began
to bring it into the open earlier this year. Since then an
amazingly broad array of state and local elected officials have
begun to express alarm. The Conference of Chief Justices of U.S.
states and territories , National Association of state Attorneys
General, National Conference of State Legislatures, National
Association of Counties, National League of Cities, U.S. Conference
of Mayors, National Association of Towns and Townships, as well as
various state legislatures have all sent letters to Congress
expressing their concern.

The National Association of Counties wrote that trade deals being
negotiated by the Bush administration would give foreign investors
operating in the United States greater legal rights than our own
citizens possess and would directly threaten the autonomy and
sovereignty of local government. The National Association of
Attorneys General said Fast Track "raises serious concerns over its
potential impact on the power of state or local governments to
protect the welfare and environment of their citizens . . . ."

At issue are the "investor-state" provisions in the North
American Free Trade Agreement's Chapter 11 that allow Canadian and
Mexican companies to sue the U.S. government for any law,
regulation, court decision or other action that can be construed as
diminishing the value of a company's investment. The Bush
administration is negotiating to extend this power to corporations
in 31 more countries and is seeking fast track to complete those
negotiations.

NAFTA's Chapter 11 has already been used to force the Canadian
government to rescind a ban on a gasoline additive containing a
known human neurotoxin. Mexico had to pay $17 million to a U.S.
company because a Mexican town would not allow the company to
operate a toxic dump on top of the town's aquifer. Now a Canadian
company is suing the United States for $970 million because
California ordered the phaseout of another neurotoxic and
carcinogenic gasoline additive - one also restricted in Minnesota -
that is polluting drinking water in several parts of the state.

Chapter 11 can be used to challenge any act by any unit of
government, from city councils and juries to Congress and the
Supreme Court. The prohibitive cost of the potential judgments - up
to $32 billion per year, an amount equal to three-fourths of the
annual federal block grants to state and local governments,
according to a study from the Fletcher School at Tufts University -
means that such challenges can effectively overturn the actions of
citizens' representatives at all levels.

Decisions in Chapter 11 cases are made in secret tribunals of
"trade experts" who are in no way accountable to the citizenry of
the country whose laws are being judged. The concept is an affront
to the logic of accountable government that the 13 colonies
proclaimed July 4, 1776.


Congress is expected to take final action on fast track in July.
The outcome will decide whether or not the Bush administration can
complete the Free Trade Area of the Americas and its unprecedented
shift of governance powers from citizens to transnational
corporations. Three Minnesota members of Congress - Reps. Gil
Gutknecht, Mark Kennedy, and Jim Ramstad - plan to vote in favor of
this democracy-busting bill.

On this anniversary of our declaration of the right to govern
ourselves democratically, Gutknecht, Kennedy, and Ramstad should
carefully reconsider the ramifications of their vote for the future
of our democracy. They should vote for democracy and against fast
track.


- Larry Weiss is coordinator of the Minnesota Fair Trade Coalition.

LOAD-DATE: November 20, 2002