For the Clinton Administration, doing without fast-track authority will mean a tougher time in trade negotiations.
Hence Mr Clinton's attempt last year to win fast-track authority on the Republicans' terms.
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Leaders there surely will want to hear what Clinton says about the chances for renewed fast-track authority.
Fast-track authority is one of the most important devices in the U.S.'s toolkit for establishing trade agreements.
Fast-track authority gives the president unbridled power to negotiate trade deals, which Congress then votes up or down but cannot amend.
And, running the risk of alienating fellow Democrats, Clinton will call anew for so-called fast-track authority to negotiate international trade deals.
Given the rude health of the American economy over the past few years, the administration's failure to win fast-track authority seems remarkable.
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His officials have at times warned Congress that, if it does not give him fast-track authority, European rivals will grab a rising share of the Latin American market.
That said, both NAM and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce want to see the Doha talks resumed, and they're pushing hard for a renewal of the president's fast-track authority.
If the deal is not completed by Saturday, it will not be eligible for consideration under the president's fast-track authority to negotiate trade agreements, which expires at the end of June.
And though Latin Americans are sceptical of negotiating with a president who lacks fast-track authority, it is, after all, at the end, not the start, of talks that that authority is required.
An agreement had to be reached by midnigh U.S. time on April 1 in order to be considered for fast-track approval by the U.S. Congress, the required 90 days before the current fast-track authority expires.
But oddly, the expiration of Bush's fast-track authority is not as damaging as it might seem at first--mainly because the administration has done just about all it can do on free trade deals for now.
President Bill Clinton plans to meet with economic and political advisors this afternoon to discuss a revised administration plan to push for House passage of legislation granting the president fast-track authority to negotiate free trade deals.
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The Bush administration has four free trade agreements pending in Congress right now, and it is not likely to send any more to the Hill because lawmakers did not renew the president's fast-track authority to negotiate trade deals.
Every American president since 1974 -- Democrat and Republican alike -- has had the authority to negotiate new trade agreements called fast-track negotiating authority, which permits the agreements to be presented in a package to the Congress to be approved -- up or down.
American farmers, keen to export, have been lobbying for a renewal of fast-track negotiating authority.
This explains why Mr Clinton never made a convincing case for fast-track trade-negotiating authority, which Congress consequently blocked.
If Clinton gets his way, fast-track trade authority legislation will be back, too.
Also, it would have secured by now the fast-track negotiating authority so essential to the viability of future free-trade initiatives.
Although nobody yet talks of it publicly, one popular revised deadline is 2007, the year that Mr Bush's fast-track negotiating authority expires.
Congress should renew the President's "fast-track" authority to negotiate trade agreements.
And Congress is in no mood to grant it fast-track negotiating authority, without which America lacks the power to strike trade deals and so cannot negotiate credibly.
To ensure that tax reform gets a fair hearing, he says Republicans plan to create a "fast-track" authority so that the compromise doesn't get bogged down in committees and is assured an up or down vote on the House floor.
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The White House also hopes to renew the President's fast-track trade negotiating authority, which expires this summer.
Presidents have relied on their fast-track Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) to negotiate pacts that Congress can ratify or reject but not amend.
Meanwhile, Vice President Al Gore called on Congress to give Clinton the so-called fast track authority to negotiate free trade agreements.
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The U.S. Congress's refusal to give President Clinton "fast-track" trade negotiating authority is only the most publicized example of a trend throughout the region away from economic openness.
In his speech to the AFL-CIO's annual convention in Pittsburgh, Clinton made his case for being granted so-called "fast-track" trade agreement authority, which the labor federation bitterly opposes.
If the fast-track process is not extended, trade negotiating authority could become encumbered by congressional intervention, which would effectively kill the Doha discussions.
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