A slew of negative reactions from key lawmakers to news that the Trans-Pacific Partnership has been finalized has raised doubts that the deal will be ratified by the United States.
Among the issues at the heart of the grumbling is language that would exempt tobacco companies from TPP investor-state dispute settlement fora—a carve-out that has reportedly enraged conservatives and caused at least one Democrat to say it validates his party’s concerns about the deal writ large.
“The removal of tobacco from the dispute resolution process acknowledges the dangers posed both by tobacco and by the secretive Investor State Dispute Settlement process that allows big corporations to use trade agreements to circumvent laws protecting public health,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said.
More significantly, however, is the Monday cascade of lament from a Republican Party that has helped advance President Obama’s trade agenda in the face of significant liberal and progressive opposition. A strong supporter of the TPP throughout its drafting, Senate Finance Committee Chair Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said the deal “appears to fall woefully short.” His counterpart in the House, Ways and Means Committee Chair Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), said he wants “to explore concerns surrounding the most recent aspects of the agreement.”
One of the the pair’s Republican colleagues’ foremost concerns on the matter is tobacco carve-out. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) reportedly has problems with the provisions, The New York Times noted in a story on the matter published last week. So, too, do two of his caucus members from a state known for its tobacco production.
“I’ll not only vote against it, I’ll work hard to have it defeated if it goes in the final agreement,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) told The Times. Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) also complained to the paper. In July, Tillis described a possible tobacco carve-out as “equal treatment and due process for everyone but some members of the minority.”
On Monday, in response to the news that the draft TPP had been completed, McConnell said that “serious concerns have been raised on a number of key issues.”
“In the months ahead, the Senate will review this agreement to determine if it meets the high standards Congress and the American people have demanded,” he added.
If the maneuvering on tobacco was designed to win over critics of the TPP from the left, it doesn’t yet appear to be working. Blumenthal did not say he would support the deal. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) called the carve-out “true progress on that issue” but said he would only accept a deal with “a minimum of NAFTA’s auto provisions or strong and enforceable currency provisions” (the TPP lacks the former, and administration officials described the latter as a “poison pill” when lawmakers attempted to insert it into the deal).
Other longtime prominent Democratic opponents of the president’s trade agenda–including Sens. Tammy Baldwin (Wis.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), and Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)–came out on Monday with statements strongly critical of the TPP and its entire drafting process.
“Wall Street and other big corporations have won again. It is time for the rest of us to stop letting multi-national corporations rig the system to pad their profits at our expense,” said Sanders, who added he would “do all that I can to defeat this agreement.”
The investor state dispute settlement process, which has featured in past trade deals, has been praised by supporters as an important way to uphold free trade agreements. Companies that feel countries illegally give preference to their own producers can use the body to sue.
Opponents, however, have likened it to a secret civil court that can be used by economic elites to subvert democratic processes. Only investors can be plaintiffs, and the bodies often rule on “minimum standards of treatment” provisions that don’t necessarily relate to discriminatory trade policies.
The text of the final TPP won’t be officially made publicly available until early November, according to The New York Times. Congress can’t vote on ratification until early next year, according to the legislative process established by the trade promotion authority “fast-track” bill Congress needed to pass before considering TPP.
