[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 155 (Friday, November 7, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2210-E2211]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      WILLIAM HUDSON ON FAST TRACK

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. GEORGE W. GEKAS

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, November 6, 1997

  Mr. GEKAS. Mr. Speaker, as we reach the final phase of our 
consideration of legislation on fast-track trade legislation, I rise to 
bring to the attention of my colleagues the recently published remarks 
on that topic. William J. Hudson, the chairman and CEO of AMP, Inc., a 
major electrical connection device manufacturer located in Harrisburg, 
PA, in my congressional district, makes a cogent argument for the 
passage of fast-track authority. I hope his remarks are read and 
followed by this Congress.

                     Fast Track: Renew the Promise

                         (By William J. Hudson)

       A family quarrel in public isn't always a bad thing. When 
     the quarreling family members are the Congress and the 
     President of the United States, the result could well be a 
     salutary demonstration of democracy at work. If Congress 
     passes a fast track bill this fall, it will give the world 
     just such a demonstration.
       Now that the Senate Finance Committee and the House 
     Committee on Ways and Means have approved solid versions of a 
     fast track bill that the White House can support, we have a 
     clear signal that the Administration and the leaders of the 
     House and Senate are working together to get this critical 
     legislation approved. Let us hope they succeed. The first 
     test should come later this fall when Congress votes on the 
     fast-track, more formally, the ``Reciprocal Trade Agreement 
     Authorities Act of 1997''.
       If they do anything but pass it, the result will be far 
     worse than the embarrassment of a public quarrel. It will be 
     the public crippling of America as leader, the economic 
     leader the world has depended upon for the past 50 years. To 
     understand why, one needs to know a little about fast-track 
     and a little recent history.

[[Page E2211]]

       Fast-track is a promise. It is a promise that the Congress 
     gives to the President and, by extension, to all of America's 
     trading partners. The promise is this: If the President 
     pursues Congressionally prescribed objectives with America's 
     trading partners, and if his negotiators consult closely with 
     Congress, then Congress will give any resulting agreement 
     special treatment: an up or down vote--no amendments--in a 
     definite period of time. That promise is the essence of 
     fast-track.
       There was a time when America's trading partners felt it 
     was up to the Administration to determine when it needed 
     ``fast-track'' authority. Those were the halcyon days before 
     the summer of 1994 when the Clinton Administration and 
     Congress failed in the effort to agree on a fast-track bill. 
     More importantly, it was before Chile decided that, unless 
     the U.S. Administration had the fast-track promise in its 
     pocket--unless America could negotiate with one voice--there 
     was no point in negotiating at all. In the fall of 1995, 
     Chile broke off the NAFTA accession negotiations with the 
     United States. It continued talks with Canada and Mexico, 
     however, concluding separate agreements with those two 
     countries.
       The world will never be the same again, at least not for 
     U.S. trade negotiators. Countries will no longer give them 
     the benefit of the doubt. From now on, any trade negotiation 
     with the United States must be one that Congress supports 
     from the beginning with fast-track, or it won't happen.
       Our company, AMP Incorporated, has its headquarters in 
     Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, but we produce in twenty-five 
     countries and sell into over 100. Approximately 54 percent of 
     our 1996 earnings came from sales outside the United States, 
     and that figure is rising. To a significant degree our future 
     depends upon increased cooperation among governments, the 
     kind of cooperation that is expressed in trade agreements. 
     That is one reason why we belong to the Pacific Basin 
     Economic Council, because PBEC is dedicated to increased 
     trade and commercial cooperation throughout the Pacific 
     Region.
       The opponents of fast track like to talk about the record, 
     as if somehow it were damaging. The reverse is true. The 
     record is one of startling success. Here in the United 
     States, the pursuit of more open global trade and investment 
     policies has given us an export boom, record growth, enviably 
     low unemployment, and an economy that is consistently rated 
     the world's most competitive.
       Abroad the story is even more startling. In East Asia, for 
     example, over 371 million people were lifted out of poverty 
     in the two decades from 1975 to 1995. That wasn't all due to 
     trade. But open trade and investment policies, and the 
     development strategies they made possible, were important 
     parts of the story.
       Whether one's focus is on the U.S. economy or on 
     developments abroad, the results of the liberal trade 
     policies of the past decades have been astoundingly positive. 
     Nothing, however, is automatic. The world can't produce good 
     economic results with bad economic policies. Both good 
     policies and strong economies require international 
     cooperation. And that means fast track. On behalf of the U.S. 
     Member Committee of PBEC, I urge every Member of Congress and 
     every Senator to renew the promise of fast-track now.

     

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