The United States must participate in developing new trade agreements at the sectoral, bilateral, regional and multilateral level. These trade agreements provide rules governing not only how nations trade, but how policy-makers can protect their workers, citizens, consumers, and proprietors. Thus, what Congress is really debating is whether the United States will play a role in designing the future rules and institutions governing trade. Proponents and opponents alike have not focused on this more complex story. Proponents have focused on what they see as the obvious macroeconomic benefit to the economy as a whole.
Opponents simply focus on the negative.
They think all Americans, whether highly educated or high school educated will lose their jobs to lower-compensated foreign competition, because capital, technology, and skills are global. Thus, they argue, fast track dooms all Americans to the wrong side of the tracks. This view is wrong. Fast-track authority gives Americans the opportunity to make the world trading system better. It authorizes the president to find a new role for government at the national and international level that balances democracy and capitalism, equity and efficiency.