Representative Michael Michaud represents Maine's 2nd District in the United States Congress.

This past week I joined with Senator Sherrod Brown from Ohio to introduce the "Trade Reform, Accountability, Development and Employment (TRADE) Act." We worked over the past year with an array of labor, environmental, consumer, faith and family farm organizations to develop a bill that presents a progressive vision of what a good trade agreement should include.

The TRADE Act requires a review of existing trade agreements, and a renegotiation of existing trade agreements based on that review. It sets terms of what must and must not be included in future trade agreements, and expresses the sense of the Congress that the role of Congress in trade policymaking should be strengthened.

The TRADE Act shifts the debate towards discussing a new trade and globalization model. It moves beyond repeatedly fighting against expansions of the old failed NAFTA model and sets a marker for where discussion should start with a new Congress and president in 2009.

A crucial component of the TRADE Act says that the people should have a voice in our trade policy. Gone are the days of "fast track" trade negotiating authority, when trade agreements were negotiated by the administration in secret and then presented to Congress with only the option of a "yes" or "no" vote.

I believe that one of our nation's greatest challenges is to create new rules for globalization that ensure economic security, the creation of quality U.S. jobs and offer opportunities for sustainable development in poor countries as well as ours. If we can change our current broken policies, we can help counter rising income inequality and the threats our current policies pose to national security, our shared global environment, public health and safety, and democratic accountability.

We must take action now to shape the future debate.

I support responsible trade between the United States and countries across the globe. But our current system has not worked, has not met past promises, and has not served the interests of a majority of people across our country, or the world.

By supporting a new vision for trade, we can deliver on our shared conviction that trade must serve as a means for achieving goals such as economic justice and promotion of basic human rights, healthy communities and environmental well-being.

At the end of the day, the TRADE Act sets out what my colleagues and I in Congress support - it is a roadmap for what we are for. As I write this, there are 54 cosponsors of the bill. It represents a strong step forward in fixing our trade policies and it sets a new course on trade that will benefit businesses and workers in the United States. It is my hope that this legislation will help shape the debate on trade for years to come.