CHICAGO, May 19: US Trade Representative Rob Portman on Friday issued a vehement appeal to Congress to extend the administration’s right to “fast-track” negotiating authority over trade deals.

Portman admitted that many in Congress are going cold on free trade but warned that unless Trade Promotion Authority is renewed, the very future of world peace could be at stake.

“The post-World War II wisdom of political and economic leaders was right. They assumed that nations united in the pursuit of prosperity are less likely to go to war,” he said in a speech to the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations.

“When goods cross borders, armies will not,” Portman said. But he warned that now, thanks to a “broken” consensus over the benefits of globalisation, Congress risks undoing the benefits of freer commerce.

TPA is set to expire on July 1, 2007.—AFP