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US lawmakers make it easier for Obama to 'fast-track' Trans-Pacific Partnership

Senior US lawmakers have reached a deal to make it easier for President Barack Obama to negotiate a massive trade accord with 11 other Asia-Pacific nations, including Australia and New Zealand.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Sen. Orrin Hatch. Photo / AP file

NZ Herald,

17 April, 2015

If Congress as a whole approves granting Mr Obama "fast-track" authority, it would give lawmakers the ability to vote to approve or reject the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership.

But it prevents them from introducing changes to the accord - described as the largest since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

The Trans-Pacific Partnership is a regional trade framework under negotiation between Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam.

"The TPA [trade promotion authority] bill contains the clearest articulation of trade priorities in our nation's history," said Senate Finance Committee chairman Orrin Hatch, who reached the deal with the panel's top Democrat Senator Ron Wyden, and House Ways and Means Committee chairman Paul Ryan.

"We intend to move expeditiously on these bills," Mr Hatch said at a committee hearing on Thursday (local time).

'Fairer fight', 'no back door'

The deal, which would need to pass both chambers of Congress and receive a presidential signature, Mr Wyden said, will allow a "fairer fight" and offer "no back door" for special interests to insert their priorities into the agreement.

Mr Wyden said it would provide "tougher enforcement, a new level of transparency" and "vigorous oversight".

The deal notably requires Obama to publish the deal for at least 60 days before the president signs it, and up to four months for congressional review.

And it contains a reverse switch that would allow lawmakers to turn off "fast-track" authority if they feel the trade deal fails to meet their standards.

Mr Wyden said if negotiators "fall short and the product doesn't meet our standards, Congress can still hit the brakes on a bad deal".

"I'm proud this bipartisan bill creates what I expect to be unprecedented transparency in trade negotiations, and ensures future trade deals break new ground to promote human rights, improve labor conditions, and safeguard the environment."

House Speaker John Boehner, who has long pushed for a new TPA policy, hailed the deal and said it would "strengthen" congressional authority over a final trade accord.

US Trade Representative Michael Froman, a key negotiator of the international accord, gave a cautious thumbs up to the newly agreed legislation.

"At first glance we see very important developments in terms of negotiations objectives," Mr Froman said, mentioning progress on preventing unfair competition from state-owned enterprises and strong safeguards for US business and products including agriculture.

Public concern over the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal mounts

Aid group Médecins Sans Frontières says a soon-to-be-sealed trade deal will not only push up local medicine costs, but place life-saving ones out of reach for millions of patients in developing countries.

Trade Minister Andrew Robb is negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Photo: Reuters

SMH,

16 April, 2015

At a public forum organised by critics of the Trans-Pacific Partnership on Thursday, Médecins Sans Frontières Australia's advocacy manager Jon Edwards said leaked chapters showed it granted pharmaceutical companies extended patents, allowing them to charge higher prices.

The regional trade pact, which involves 12 countries covering 40 per cent of the world's economy, has also come under fire for containing a clause that allows multinationals to sue governments if new laws harm their profits.

A late-stage draft of the Investment chapter, leaked in March by Wikileaks, showed some public health carve-outs, specifically the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, Medicare Benefits Scheme, Therapeutic Goods Administration and the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator.

But Mr Edwards told a crowd of more than a hundred at NSW Parliament House that these exemptions were "seriously flawed".

"MSF is not convinced that they will protect countries like Australia, let alone Vietnam, Malaysia or Peru, from the threat of pharmaceutical companies exercising legal threats or action to enforce monopolies they are afforded in the TPP," he said.

Patricia Ranald, co-ordinator of the Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network (AFTINET), who organised the forum, said the carve-outs showed the government's assurances about general safeguards embedded in the TPP did not hold water.

"The fact they've named those specific institutions means that the general safeguards are not effective. If we have to name those institutions, how about the other ones such as in food regulation, environmental protections?"

Trade Minister Andrew Robb refused to answer questions about the exemptions, saying he would not engage in debates over "leaked, outdated documents". He said the only text that mattered was the final text.

On Thursday, the Australian Council of Trade Unions joined counterparts from the 12 negotiating countries in calling for trade talks to cease unless they were conducted with "genuine, transparent, public mandates that place people front and centre, not big corporations".

It criticised the government for conducting the negotiations in secret.

Additionally it raised concerns about indications in leaks that some countries are attempting to reject protections of workers' rights and that the deal will not cover the United Nations International Labour Organisation conventions on rights at work.

"The TPP makes corporate profits more important than protections for clean air, clean water, climate stability and workers' rights," said ACTU president Ged Kearney. "A fair trade deal needs to recognise and protect workers' rights, environmental standards and access to quality public services – this is not happening with the TPP."

Mr Robb described the call as the latest round of scaremongering by anti-trade groups. He said the ACTU had taken part in 14 separate consultations on labour issues.

"It beggars belief the ACTU is opposing efforts to create jobs for Australians. By criticising the approach to TPP labour chapter negotiations, they are criticising themselves given they have been actively involved in guiding this approach," he said.

Mr Robb questioned whether Ms Ranald was being up front about her links with trade unions.

At the forum, Ms Ranald said AFTINET represented church, union, public health, environmental, and women's groups, amongst many others.

"I don't think being accused, being associated with unions is such a crime. We're diverse," she said to loud applause.

Mr Edwards said MSF was far from anti-trade.

"MSF is not anti-trade, quite the opposite. MSF is pro-trade and pro-competition in the pharmaceutical business, where it can reduce prices and bring benefits to our patients and others in need of essential medicines," he said.