DeLauro, Dem House Members Rail Against 'Secret' USTR Negotiations on TPP

As negotiators with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative meet this week with Trans-Pacific Partnership counterparts in Washington, the agency continues to refuse to disclose the details of the talks with lawmakers, said Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., and several Democratic colleagues on a Dec. 8 conference call. “We don’t know why the U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador [Michael] Froman has not been forthcoming,” said DeLauro.

Those remarks echo similar concerns made by House Ways and Means ranking member Sandy Levin, D-Mich., on Dec. 5 (see 1412050028). Levin said Froman was unable to convey to him details of Trans-Pacific Partnership agricultural negotiations with Japan, for instance, because at least in part Froman did not know the current status. Many lawmakers and industry representatives fear Japanese agricultural concessions in TPP will not go far enough, a concern voiced also by DeLauro on the call. “Japan has been subsidizing rice, beef, wheat, pork, dairy products and sugar for far too long,” she said. “If a deal is going to be halfway fair, it can’t give Japan a pass.”

The lawmakers on the call urged more bipartisan opposition to the TPP, as well as Trade Promotion Authority. The TPA bill floated in both chambers of Congress in January will fail to pass in the House with nearly 200 members of Congress already vowing opposition, said DeLauro. The chamber will reject any bill without more concrete stipulations on currency manipulations, said all the lawmakers on the call.

Further, the TPP pact is poised to be just another free trade agreement in a long list of FTAs that continue to fail American workers, said the lawmakers, while dismissing President Barack Obama’s recent comments in support of the trade agenda (see 1412040025). “They’re pushing to send a final package to Congress with almost no opportunity for us to scrutinize it,” said DeLauro. “None of us signed up for that when we became members of Congress. We’re not going to hand over our constitutional responsibility to an administration that refuses to work with us.” Also on the call were Reps. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, Keith Ellison, D-Minn., and Dan Kildee, D-Mich.