President Obama should be denied
Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) or fast-track trade authority that enables a
simple majority-vote passage of his nearly completed Trans-Pacific Partnership
(TPP).
That
is the conclusion that Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, former Arkansas Gov. Mike
Huckabee and real estate and media mogul Donald Trump all reached this past
week in public announcements.
But
it's a quietly released memorandum from Sen. Jeff Sessions titled
"Critical Alert: Top Five Concerns with Trade Promotion Authority"
that's rocking the Capitol as it lays bare the issue with the insightful
intelligence for which Alabama's junior senator is renowned.
Beyond
the obvious absurdity of a Republican Congress that campaigned on reining in
President Obama's power-grab ceding even more power to the executive branch,
the Sessions memo hits one issue that no thinking limited-government supporter
can accept: The TPP is a "living document."
The
battle over fast-tracking the TPP can be better understood when one realizes
that it is not a traditional trade deal but rather a comprehensive regulatory
treaty designed to "harmonize" regulations between participating
nations, with sections ranging from immigration to intellectual property to
environmental law.
Here
is how Sessions characterizes the "living document" section of the
TPP:
"A
USTR (U.S. Trade Representative) outline of the Trans-Pacific Partnership
(which TPA would expedite) notes in the 'Key Features' summary that the TPP is
a 'living agreement.'
"This
means the president could update the agreement 'as appropriate to address trade
issues that emerge in the future as well as new issues that arise with the
expansion of the agreement to include new countries.'
"The
'living agreement' provision means that participating nations could add
countries to the TPP without Congress' approval (like China) and change any of
the terms of the agreement, including in controversial areas such as the entry
of foreign workers and foreign employees.
"Again:
These changes would not be subject to congressional approval."
In
essence, TPP would give this and future presidents unprecedented authority to
add countries to it and change the terms Congress ratified, after the fact,
effectively ending Congress' role in the treaty-making process forever.
Should
TPP be ratified, no nation would choose to subject itself to the congressional
ratification process through a bilateral deal when they could garner the
economic benefits of a trade deal with the stroke of a president's pen.
And
given a treaty's unique capacity to override conflicting regulations and
statutory laws, it is reasonable to be concerned that this president or a
future one would walk through the door of renegotiating the language, negating
the need to consult Congress while affecting his own version of fundamental
transformation.
Members
of Congress have a responsibility to read the terms of the Trans-Pacific
Partnership before they vote to fast-track it, even as private citizens are
barred from doing so under treaty-making rules.
While
the process for accessing the treaty is arduous, the stakes are too high for
anyone to blithely proclaim that they are for "free trade" so they
support fast-track and by inference the TPP. At the least, they should read
Sen. Sessions' analysis based on publicly available documents before ratifying
what the president calls "the most progressive trade deal in
history."
After
reading the Sessions analysis, there is no excuse for any Republican to support
fast-tracking the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
•
Manning is president of Americans for Limited Government.
Source:http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials-viewpoint/050615-751349-fast-track-authority-lets-president-avoid-congressional-approval.htm?p=2
Comments
PPT
is economic suicide for American workers. If you think it’s bad now, you have
no idea how bad it gets with over 50% real unemployment.
Norb
Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
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