TPP -- Get it Right

Floor Speech

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Mr. POCAN. Mr. Speaker, the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement is the biggest trade deal our country has seen since NAFTA. With 12 participating countries, it encompasses 40 percent of the world's gross domestic product, so we have to get it right.

Working men and women in our communities are counting on us to get it right, not just fast, and that is why I oppose granting fast-track authority. You can see the impact of fast-tracked trade agreements in communities across the country, in the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs, factory jobs, middle class jobs, and lower wages for hard-working Americans.

In fact, the Economic Policy Institute estimates that since NAFTA, the U.S. has lost more than 700,000 jobs as production has moved to Mexico. The communities I represent in south central Wisconsin bear the scars of past trade agreements which have not lived up to what the supporters say for fast track.

Take Janesville, Wisconsin. Parker Pen has been in Janesville, Wisconsin, and employed at one time over 1,000 workers. Thanks to bad trade deals, in 2009, the remaining 150 jobs were shipped to Mexico. We are not just talking the last few years. We are talking the last few months.

In Darlington, Wisconsin, the Merkle-Korff Industries plant in Darlington, a town of 2,400 people, announced they are closing. Thirty-six family-supporting jobs are leaving that community. If that were proportional in Madison, Wisconsin, that would be like losing 3,600 jobs in a community that size.

Every time an American job is shipped out of the country, it pushes wages down for workers here.

Now, fast-track authority means that the American people, through their elected Representatives, will lose their voice in Congress by limiting the ability of Congress to debate and to amend the trade agreement.

Due to limited debate, because of the fast-track process, each Member would have a little over 2 minutes to debate that trade deal. Members would have no opportunity to offer amendments on an agreement that has 29 chapters, that covers everything from food safety to environmental standards, labor rights, intellectual property, and more.

It would give Congress' constitutional authority to the President for 6 years. That means this President, the next President, and potentially, the next President; and all Congress would be left with is a yes-or-no vote.

Before Congress grants fast-track authority, we need to get the Trans-Pacific Partnership right. What does it mean to get it right? Well, one, it means having strong enforcement language to protect American workers and our environment, which we don't currently have in the current deal.

On several occasions, I have reviewed the labor and environmental chapters of the law. While, in some instances, the language is marginally better, it still lacks enforcement.

With the Colombia free trade agreement, we can see exactly what happened. While language has been implemented in the law to protect labor rights, there has been absolutely no implementation of that language. In fact, in the 4 years since the Colombia free trade agreement has passed, 105 union organizers have been killed--murdered--in that country. The environmental chapter, I would argue, is arguably worse and still lacks the same enforcement capacity to protect our country.

Getting TPP means scrapping the investor state dispute settlement provisions that put corporate interests ahead of American sovereignty.

The ISDS provisions are unique. They create a tribunal run by the same corporate trade lawyers who, on Monday, represent the multinational corporations; on Tuesday, are supposed to be the fair arbitrators of the law; and on Wednesday, are back on the corporate payroll.

These provisions are only for multinational corporations and not for American small businesses or labor or environmental violations.

Getting the Trans-Pacific Partnership right means having other important provisions included, like currency manipulation, protections against human trafficking, and protections for human rights for LGBT individuals and for single mothers in countries that have implemented sharia law.

Getting the Trans-Pacific Partnership right means having open and transparent negotiations because there is still too much the American people don't know about this secretive agreement. After all, only about 600 people have been involved in drafting this agreement, largely corporate CEOs, but not you and not me.

The bottom line is that this will cost jobs and wages. Another bad trade deal will cost more American jobs and lower our wages.

We have seen how free trade agreements like NAFTA, CAFTA, and the U.S-Korea Free Trade Agreement passed using the same fast-track process have turned out to be a bad deal for American workers.

We need to get this right, not just fast. Congress must say ``no'' to the fast-track process.

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