Your editorial, “Engage Asia-Pacific,” (May 18), urges us to embrace a “pivot to Asia” by supporting the “Trans-Pacific Partnership” (TPP) for which the president is now seeking fast-track approval. But there are better ways to engage Asia than by pursuing this controversial trade agreement, which threatens our middle class, our environment, our health, and our democratic values. 

It is true that congressional-executive cooperation to expedite trade agreements goes back to the Roosevelt era, but it is not true that trade promotion authority (or fast track) has an 88-year pedigree. Modern fast track began in 1974 at the end of the Nixon administration and has evolved into a very different animal than it was in our grandparents’ generation. Today, it functions to expedite foreign agreements that are less about trade than about deregulation through the back door, usually to the benefit of powerful lobbies. The TPP isn’t about lowering tariffs as much as harmonizing regulatory standards across borders. It was negotiated in secret with the input of corporate groups and now remains classified under a national security provision.

This is not your grandfather’s fast track, but a corporate handout we should oppose.

David Grewal

New Haven