STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1373

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.R. No. 66

       S.D. 1

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2007

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Intergovernmental and Military Affairs and Transportation and International Affairs, to which was referred S.R. No. 66 entitled:

"SENATE RESOLUTION RESPECTFULLY REQUESTING THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS TO CREATE A REPLACEMENT FOR THE OUTDATED FAST TRACK TRADE AUTHORITY SYSTEM SO THAT UNITED STATES TRADE AGREEMENTS ARE DEVELOPED AND IMPLEMENTED USING A MORE DEMOCRATIC, INCLUSIVE MECHANISM THAT ENSHRINES THE PRINCIPLES OF FEDERALISM AND STATE SOVEREIGNTY,"

beg leave to report as follows:

          The purpose of this measure is to request that the United States Congress create a replacement for the outdated Fast Track Trade Authority system.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Government Employees Association, AFSCME Local 152, AFL-CIO.

     Your Committees find that despite the indisputable fact that international trade agreements have a far-reaching impact on state and local laws, federal government trade negotiators have not respected states' rights by failing to ensure the states' prior informed consent before binding them to conform state law and authority to trade agreement requirements.

     Your Committees further find that the Fast Track Trade Authority, which was established by President Richard Nixon when trade agreements were limited to traditional matters such as tariffs and quotas, is now woefully outdated and inappropriate given the diverse range of nontrade issues now included in trade agreements that broadly affect federal and state nontrade regulatory authority.

     Your Committees further find that the Fast Track Trade Authority eliminates vital checks and balances established in the United States Constitution by broadly delegating Congress' exclusive Constitutional authority to set the terms of trade to the Executive Branch, empowering it to negotiate broad-ranging trade agreements and to sign them before Congress votes on the agreements.

     To this end, it is the intent of your Committees to request that the United States Congress create a replacement for the outdated Fast Track Trade Authority by ensuring the prior informed consent of state legislatures before states are bound to the nontariff terms of any trade agreement that affects state regulatory authority, to make certain that the United States Trade Representative respects the decisions made by states.

     Your Committees have amended the measure for purposes of clarity.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Intergovernmental and Military Affairs and Transportation and International Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees concur with the intent and purpose of S.R. No. 66, as amended herein, and recommend that it be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Labor, in the form attached hereto as S.R. No. 66, S.D. 1.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Intergovernmental and Military Affairs and Transportation and International Affairs,

____________________________ J. KALANI ENGLISH, Chair

____________________________ LORRAINE R. INOUYE, Chair