Writing a Letter to the Editor Opposing “Fast Track”

Talking Points about Fast Track:
Please focus on the issues that matter most to you, and write your Letter in your own words! Newspaper editors are usually turned off when seeing identically-worded letters.

  • CHOOSE ONE ISSUE TO FOCUS ON: Fast Track is the policymaking procedure that allows trade agreements that outsource Oregon jobs/devastate the environment/harm the U.S. middle classto be rushed through Congress.Fast Trackexpired on July 1, 2007,and should not be renewed.
  • Fast Track eliminates normal Congressional review, amendment and debate of trade agreements, while giving large corporations special access to trade negotiators.It has led to the passage of horrendous trade pacts like the North American Free Trade Agreement and the World Trade Organization.
  • Fast Track-approved trade agreements have resulted in millions of American jobs being shipped overseas, including approximately 68,000 jobs lost in Oregon, according to the Oregon Fair Trade Campaign.Congress should find ways to retain and create good jobs for their constituents.Fast Track is an outdate policy that sends local jobs abroad.
  • Fast Track-approved trade agreements have opened federal, state and municipal environmental protections around the nation to attack by foreign corporations.Worse still, they have exacerbated “rip and ship” resource exploitation in some the world’s most ecologically-sensitive areas.
  • In the time since Fast Track was first cooked up by the Nixon administration, real wages for the average American worker have only increased by five cents an hour, according to Census Bureau statistics.Worker productivity has nearly doubled over the same time period.Clearly Fast Track-approved trade policies are not working for the average American.We’ve only received a nickel raise in the past thirty years, and we’re working twice as hard to earn it.
  • It is time for Congress to reassert its authority in the trade policymaking arena, and get to work seeking models for trade that will improve living standards in Oregon and around the globe.Fast Track reauthorization should be rejected.

For more info on Fast Track, visit https://www.citizenstrade.org/ctc/trade-policies/fast-tracktrade-promotion-authority-tpa/