Most presidents are free traders, to a fault. The last three presidents (both the President Bushes and President Clinton) are among those who have broadly sought expanded trade authority while settling for little Congressional oversight and less, if any at all, protection for workers, consumers or the environment (remember NAFTA, Fast track, WTO, etc.?) Worse, the slew of so-called bi-lateral (CAFTA, FTAA, etc.) trade agreements that have been ratified in the past few years have included numerous provisions inserted at the behest of U.S. drug companies and other powerful special interests.

Now, there is a fair trade alternative. From Public Citizen's release last week:

Following a presidential primary season highlighting broad public concern about current trade policies, the Trade Reform, Accountability, Development and Employment (TRADE) Act introduced today by Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Rep. Mike Michaud (D-Maine) reveals a way forward to a new trade and globalization agenda that could benefit more Americans, said Public Citizen. The bill is supported by a broad array of labor, consumer, environmental, family farm and faith groups and more than 50 House and Senate original cosponsors. "The TRADE Act is exciting because it describes concretely new trade and globalization policies that many Americans would support and shifts the debate toward future consensus about what we are for, rather than focusing on opposition to the current model," said Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch division. [...]"Corporate interests have hijacked past trade pacts to get special protections -- patent extensions that jack up drug prices, subsidies for offshoring production and more.