Keep ‘fast track’ for trade pacts off congressional track forever

It’s not every day that Congress- man Tim Ryan snubs an invite to hop on board the train whose conductor is none other than his political party’s leader and his nation’s chief executive. But along this winter’s bumpy ride toward giving President Barack Obama “fast-track’’ authority to slam the brakes on the House and Senate’s constitutional role in drafting global trade treaties, Ryan refuses to get railroaded.

The Howland Democrat’s steadfast opposition clearly stands as the reasoned and responsible approach. After all, “fast track” would run roughshod over Congress’ legitimate power to leave its imprint on the final draft of the Trans Pacific Partnership Treaty. Given the adverse consequences associated with other similarly negotiated trade agreements, Ryan and other House and Senate opponents wisely seek to sidetrack any additional risks to this nation’s rapidly rising trade deficit and slow-moving economic recovery.

It was five weeks ago, in his 2015 State of the Union Address, when Obama beseeched all federal legislators to grant him Trade Promotion Authority, the legal term for fast track authority, in order to carry the nearly completed TPP home to swift and easy adoption. Congress would have an unceremonious take-it-or-leave-it vote on U.S. adoption but absolutely no power to tweak any of its provisions.

As such, Ryan is on the right track in his sharp criticism: “It shifts way too much power to the executive branch.” And as any high school student of civics understands, American government still operates on a system of checks and balances. In “fast track,” the legislative branch would lose its rightful check to correct any errors, omissions or excesses of the president in order to then craft a more fair and balanced agreement.

For those with short memories, recall some of the devastating fallout from two of the nation’s largest fast-tracked trade pacts — the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994 and the South Korean Free Trade Agreement in 2011.

NAFTA, the free-trade pact among Mexico, Canada and the United States, raced through Congress on the fast track on the promise of creating 200,000 American jobs. In a 17-year retrospective on the treaty, the Economic Policy Institute estimates it robbed the U.S. economy of about 700,000 jobs, including about 50,000 in the domestic auto industry.

Import tariffs

More recently, the South Korean Free Trade Agreement was adopted on the fast track in 2011 as this nation’s first major free-trade pact with a major Asian nation and the largest such treaty since NAFTA. It, too, promised a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. What America got, however, was a soaring trade deficit with South Korea and a loss of more than 60,000 jobs, including many in the Oil Country Tubular Goods industry, of which the Mahoning Valley is a prime producer. Only after widespread outrage — including editorial anger expressed by this newspaper — did the U.S. reverse its position and circumvent that treaty by implementing tariffs against South Korean imports last year.

Now comes the TPP, an even larger behemoth than NAFTA that involves the U.S. and 11 other nations involving 800 million people and 40 percent of the world economy. With such monumental stakes, this agreement merits comprehensive inspection, full consideration and ample opportunities to amend provisions potentially harmful to the U.S. economy. If Congress ties its own hands by green lighting fast track, it will only have itself to blame for any collateral damage TPP could create.

Clearly, on constitutional grounds, fast track is left wanting. And on practical grounds, it poses too many risks to our economic recovery. That’s why others in Congress should follow Ryan’s lead and keep fast track off track for the long haul.