Condoleezza Rice: Give President Obama trade promotion authority

Alabama native and Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (Photo: Screenshot)

STANFORD, California — Alabama native and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice wrote in an op-ed published by the Washington Post that Congress should give President Obama the fast-track trade authority he desires because free trade is “an essential pillar of economic liberty, prosperity and peace.”

The controversial Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) or “fast-track” authority would reinstate a rule which requires an up or down simple majority congressional vote on trade agreements. Though it was first passed 40 years ago, it lapsed in 2007. Several prominent lawmakers, including Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions (R), have spoken out in opposition to reinstating the authority, worrying it will cede too much power to the executive branch.

In her op-ed Rice argues that it doesn’t matter who the president is, the TPA should be reinstated.

“Trade-promotion authority is a critical tool in the conduct of U.S. diplomacy,” she writes. “It does not strip Congress of a role in negotiating trade agreements. It explicitly allows Congress to outline principles that must be heeded during negotiations and to exercise its constitutional duties by voting on negotiated agreements. Congress has used that authority to shape the direction of trade agreements over decades — and without it those agreements would not have been possible. Our negotiating partners will not sign trade agreements with the United States if those agreements will, after the fact, be subject to line-by-line amendment during ratification.”

Rice contends that since the end of WWII, American leaders have “designed an international order to support free markets understood that either we would write the rules of the game or someone else would. They were haunted by the protectionism of the 1930s that worsened the Great Depression and arguably contributed to World War II. They believed that free trade was an essential pillar of economic liberty, prosperity and peace.”

“Sidelining” the United States by not approving the TPA while other countries build trade agreements will lead to the rest of the world seeing our country as having given up on the “international order” as envisioned by 20th century leaders, Rice wrote.

“Free trade is no substitute for military strength or for giving voice to those who still seek liberty,” she concluded. “Trade-promotion authority and new trade agreements will not alone solve the global challenges that we face. Yet trade is an essential element of a strategy that long ago placed faith in the proposition that the future would belong to free peoples and free markets. That is why I urge Congress to renew trade-promotion authority. The United States cannot afford to be sidelined, ceding the ground to those who do not share our values and our interests. Future generations would pay dearly for that choice.”