[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 79 (Thursday, May 21, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3221-S3223]
TRADE POLICY
Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I listened to some of the debate earlier
this afternoon--in between the effort to make progress toward getting a
fair array of amendments for both sides--about this whole question of
secrecy surrounding trade policy. A number of Senators were discussing
it, and so I just wanted to take a minute to be very clear that I think
they have a very valid point with respect to the secrecy that has long
accompanied these trade discussions. I would like to discuss how I made
it my paramount reform to make sure we would have a new era of
transparency, openness, and accountability in the discussion about
making trade policy.
I have always felt that if you believe deeply in international
trade--the way I do--and you want more of it, why in the world would
you be for all this secrecy? That just makes Americans more cynical
about the whole topic and makes them think that in Washington, DC,
there is something to hide.
I note my friend and partner in all this, Chairman Hatch, is on the
floor, and he will recall when we began our discussions--and they went
on really for close to 7 months in our effort to forge a bipartisan
package--that I wanted to take a very fresh approach with respect to
transparency, and I wanted us to be able to say that for the first time
in the history of debating these policies, we would no longer have the
country and elected officials in the dark with respect to really what
is at issue in these discussions.
So here is a short assessment of what really has changed. Of course,
right now we are working on the rules for future trade agreements. We
are working on the trade promotion act that sets out the rules for
future agreements. Obviously, the first one will involve the Trans-
Pacific Partnership--what is known as TPP--and there are a variety of
others that are under discussion, particularly one with Europe.
If the Congress--the Senate and the other body--adopts this package
that Chairman Hatch and I, in conjunction with Chairman Ryan, have put
together over these many months, I think we will have achieved our goal
of making sure everybody in the Congress and everybody in the United
States who chooses to can have the information they need about trade
agreements
[[Page S3222]]
before a single vote is cast on the floor of the Senate or on the floor
of the other body.
Here is how the reform would work: First, it is required by law--in
other words, this isn't something that is discretionary--that these
trade agreements, starting with the Trans-Pacific Partnership, would be
made public 60 days before the President of the United States signs
that agreement. That means if you want to come to a townhall meeting in
Colorado, held by the distinguished Presiding Officer of the Senate--
even before the President signs it--a citizen in Colorado can come with
the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement--the entire agreement--in their
hands and ask questions of the Presiding Officer of the Senate or any
one of our colleagues in the Senate and the House.
After that 60-day period of sunshine and exposure, the President can
sign it, and then there would be close to 2 additional months--2
additional months--before the voting on the floor of the Senate and the
House begins.
So when I heard my colleagues--Senators whom I respect greatly--talk
earlier today about secrecy and that secrecy was no good and why
couldn't this be changed and why couldn't that be changed, it made me
want to come to the floor--and I will do an overview of all of the
progressive reforms that have been made to this package; reforms I
thought were important for a new era of what I call trade done right--
to make sure we corrected the suggestion that somehow everybody is
going to be in the dark before the Congress and the country saw voting
begin in the Senate and the House.
Chairman Hatch is here, and he remembers all of our negotiations on
this point. It is really going to mean--with the 60-day requirement for
sunlight before the President signs the agreement and then probably 2
more months after it has been signed, before we start voting--that a
citizen can come to a townhall meeting in Colorado, Utah or any part of
the country and have that Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement in their
hands in order to be able to ask questions about it.
I certainly think that puts our trade negotiators and everybody else
kind of on their toes because they know the American people and the
Congress are going to have that document. That is going to start with
the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement.
Now, Chairman Hatch and I made a number of other changes. In the
future, it would be possible for the discussion of negotiations--
summaries of the negotiations--to be made public so people would also
have more information about the process as it was going forward. We
have lifted a number of the restrictions in terms of Members having
access to the materials and staff having access to the materials.
Because the chairman is here, I want to express my thanks to him
especially on this point. We spent a lot of time on a whole host of
issues: How you could put the brakes on a flawed agreement. I am glad
the chairman can smile about our discussions on that point today, but
suffice it to say they were pretty spirited. We had discussions on a
host of these topics. I am especially pleased we made these very
substantial changes on the issue of sunlight, transparency, openness,
and accountability because I think my colleagues--who discussed it on
the floor and many others who have been concerned about secrecy in the
past with respect to these agreements--when they get a chance to
actually see the details that are in the reforms Chairman Hatch,
Chairman Ryan, and I put together, are going to see we have made some
very dramatic changes.
Now, I think some specific changes here are areas that I would like
to outline. I am going to go to the question of major changes in
workers' rights and environmental protections because I know that a
number of my colleagues, when they talked earlier, were concerned about
these issues as well.
Suffice it to say, on workers' rights and environmental protections,
if we go back to the 1990s, back to the NAFTA era, these vital
priorities basically were just shunted to the side. It would be almost
inflationary to say they got short shrift. They basically got no
shrift. They just got shunted to the side. They were in unenforceable
side deals, which meant that the United States in effect had to take it
on blind faith that our partners would live up to their commitments. It
was my view that many of my colleagues, particularly on the Democratic
side of the aisle, were spot-on in saying that wasn't good enough.
This trade package will say in clear terms that the United States is
done allowing labor and environmental protections to be pushed aside
and disregarded. Our partners will be required to adopt and maintain
core international labor standards. Core international labor standards
are going to be required of our trading partners. They will have to
adopt them, and they will have to maintain them. That is not something
that is to the side and is unenforceable. That is real. It has got
teeth.
Also, our partners would be required to adopt what are really common
multilateral environmental agreements, and these would be backed by the
threat of trade sanctions. So these are major changes that certainly
contribute to what I think makes the most progressive approach with
respect to trade policy in the future.
And for the first time, the President is directed under this piece of
legislation to make sure our trading partners adopt and maintain key
laws. That is why, for example, I mentioned labor standards. And here
is what those are: freedom of association, the effective recognition of
the right to collective bargaining, the elimination of all forms of
forced or compulsory labor, the effective abolition of child labor and
a prohibition on the worst forms of child labor, and the elimination of
discrimination with respect to employment and occupation.
Now, those are the keys with respect to the labor side.
Here are the key protections on the environmental side, which I have
again highlighted here at the outset. The bedrock protections here are
that there has to be recognition to ensure that there is compliance
with the Convention on International Trade and Endangered Species Act,
the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Depletes the Ozone Layer, the
Protocol on Prevention of Pollution from Ships, the Convention on
Wetlands, the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine
Resources, the Convention on Whaling, and the Tropical Tuna Convention.
This, again, is not stuck in a side deal but is fully enforceable,
and not just rearranging inadequate policies of the past, sort of
rearranging sinking deck chairs. This is better than anything that has
existed before--better than the North American Free Trade Agreement,
better than the Central American Free Trade Agreement.
With these changes, our country is saying that we will no longer take
it on blind faith that other countries are going to adopt stronger
standards for protecting workers and the environment. This is the first
time the United States is setting the standard and demanding that
trading partners hit that mark. That is very real progress.
I will close with just this point. Many colleagues who have been
skeptical about trade agreements always raise the issue about whether
trade is somehow going to be a race to the bottom. What I have just
described is a concrete way to have a new force for raising standards
up and getting the standards up, because my colleagues are right that
they have been inadequate in the past.
So whether you are for this bill or not, I hope my colleagues will
take a look at the new sunshine provisions, because the American people
are not going to be in the dark about what is in a trade agreement
before anybody votes on that agreement here in the Senate and the
House.
I hope my colleagues will especially look at the new provisions with
respect to labor rights and environmental rights, because the day is
over when those considerations are going to be shunted to the side.
They are going to be front and center, and they are going to have
teeth. And instead of a race to the bottom that my colleagues have been
concerned about, the United States will be where it always is, where we
are at our best--forcing standards up.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Utah.
Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I wish to personally thank the
distinguished
[[Page S3223]]
Senator from Oregon for the work he has done on this bill. It couldn't
have been done without him. A number of other people on his side have
been very contributory and helpful.
We are not there yet, but we are going to work at it. I just have to
say how much I have enjoyed working with him on the floor so far. I
just hope everything will go smoothly so we can get this bill up and
out and get the President what he needs to conclude these negotiations
and also especially for our Trade Representative. Mr. Froman has done a
very good job, as far as I can see. We will have to see what the TPP is
like, but we will all have a chance to look at it for a considerable
period of time before we have to vote on anything regarding that.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. LEE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
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