Levin Supportive of Russia PNTR Hearing, Disagrees Over TPP Environmental Concerns

House Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Sander Levin (D-Mich.) voiced his support April 26 for plans for a hearing on giving Russia Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) announced by the committee's Chairman, Dave Camp (R-Mich.) Levin said the hearing is long overdue, considering it has been four months since Russia was granted membership to the World Trade Organization.

No House Movement on Legislation

The Senate is already preparing legislation to address outstanding issues on normalizing trade relations with Russia, but there has been no such effort by the House majority, he said. Granting PNTR with Russia clearly has commercial advantages; there are other issues that have been raised and are being discussed in the Senate and need bipartisan consultation in the House, he said.

TPP Labor and Environmental Standards Necessary

Levin said he was concerned by Chairman Camp’s dismissive comments regarding the Administration’s work on labor and environmental issues in the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations. In recent trade agreements, Democrats fought and won inclusion of vital labor and environmental standards; what delayed their passage was the refusal of Republicans to address those standards, he said. A similar effort to include labor and environmental standards is now being undertaken by the Administration in TPP negotiations, which require an effort to work on a bipartisan -- not partisan -- basis, said Levin.

(See ITT's Online Archive [Ref:12042631} for summary of Rep. Camp's announcement.)