I know that many of you have expressed strong interest in the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership. Last night the text of the agreement was made public, and you can find a link to it and a statement from President Obama in the email below.
The Trade Promotion Authority legislation passed earlier this year creates a new process for public and Congressional review, providing increased transparency and time for debate. As soon as the President notifies Congress that he intends to sign the pact, there will be a 90 day public review period before he is allowed to submit the agreement to Congress. After he signs the pact there will be another 30 day period for Congressional review, and then further delays as the bill works its way through the House and Senate.
What this means is that the public and Congress will have at least four months to review the TPP. During this time I’ll be looking to determine whether the President is right when he says, “it’s the highest standard trade agreement in history,” with the strongest projections for workers or the environment, or whether it falls short of these goals.
I plan to use this period to read the text of the agreement carefully, meet with experts on all sides of this issue, and most importantly, talk to folks in our region to find out how it will impact all of us here at home.
As always, I welcome your input in the coming months.
-Derek
Subject: Here’s the deal: The text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership
Good morning,
Please find below a post on Medium by President Obama regarding the text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. You can read the post and find the text of the agreement HERE.
Thank you,
White House Office of Legislative Affairs
Here’s the deal: The text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership
By President Obama
When we have a level playing field, Americans out-compete anyone in the world. That’s a fundamental truth about our country. But right now, the rules of global trade put our workers, our businesses, and our values at a disadvantage.
If you’re an autoworker in Michigan, the cars you build face taxes as high as 70 percent in Vietnam. If you’re a worker in Oregon, you’re forced to compete against workers in other countries that that set lower standards and pay lower wages just to cut their costs. If you’re a small business owner in Ohio, you might face customs rules that are confusing, costly, and an unnecessary barrier to selling abroad.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership will change that.
It’s the highest standard trade agreement in history. It eliminates 18,000 taxes that various countries put on American goods. That will boost Made-in-America exports abroad while supporting higher-paying jobs right here at home. And that’s going to help our economy grow.
I know that past trade agreements haven’t always lived up to the hype. That’s what makes this trade agreement so different, and so important.
The TPP includes the strongest labor standards in history, from requiring a minimum wage and worker safety regulations to prohibiting child labor and forced labor. It also includes the strongest environmental commitments in history, requiring countries in one of the most biologically diverse areas on Earth to crack down on illegal wildlife trafficking, illegal logging, and illegal fishing. These standards are at the core of the agreement and are fully enforceable – which means we can bring trade sanctions against countries that don’t step up their game.
And for the first time ever, we’ll have a multilateral trade agreement that reflects the reality of the digital economy by promoting a free and open Internet and by preventing unfair laws that restrict the free flow of data and information.
In other words, the TPP means that America will write the rules of the road in the 21st century. When it comes to Asia, one of the world’s fastest-growing regions, the rulebook is up for grabs. And if we don’t pass this agreement—if America doesn’t write those rules—then countries like China will. And that would only threaten American jobs and workers and undermine American leadership around the world.
That’s why I am posting the text of this agreement here for you to read and explore. There’s a lot in here, so we’ve put together summaries of each chapter to help you navigate what’s in the agreement and what these new standards will mean for you.
I know that if you take a look at what’s actually in the TPP, you will see that this is, in fact, a new type of trade deal that puts American workers first.
