CONYERS: Lame duck TPP vote could be disastrous for Dems—and America

By John Conyers, Jr.

Dean of the U.S. House
of Representatives
John Conyers, Jr.

In terms of style and substance, tenor and tone, the two parties’ conventions could not have differed more dramatically.  Whereas the Republican gathering focused on fear and division, the Democratic convention called forth hope and constructive action.   

And yet, almost paradoxically, there was a common message reverberating through the convention halls in Cleveland and Philadelphia: The system is rigged. 

While the causes and consequences of the public perception are many, there’s one hot-button issue in this campaign that exemplifies what people see as wrong with the system: The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

Negotiated in secret under the advisement of multinational corporations, the TPP gives handouts to the multinational corporate class at the expense of the middle class.  It pits workers here against those abroad, boosting profits of multinational corporations while our workers see downward pressure on wages. It allows fossil fuel corporations to sue governments in private tribunals to overturn policies that protect our families and our environment.  It gives the pharmaceutical industry monopoly protections while consumers endure skyrocketing prices for medicine.

Despite these concerns, it is an open secret that an overwhelming number of Republicans and a few of their Democratic counterparts are quietly seeking to push TPP through during the lame duck session of Congress. That period after the November elections is when legislators are least accountable.  With a lame duck vote, Members of Congress who lost their November elections would still able to throw their weight behind the extraordinarily unpopular deal. Newly-elected Members would not have a voice.  And reelected legislators would feel free to take a controversial vote that would please their corporate benefactors, confident that voter anger over their decision will subside in the two years before their next election.

In short, a lame duck consideration of the unpopular TPP would be undemocratic, and would wildly exacerbate frustrations about a rigged system.  

As a representative of one of America’s great manufacturing cities and a lifelong advocate for corporate accountability, I believe strongly that the TPP should never be approved.  But even those lawmakers and officials who support the deal should recognize that lame duck consideration of such a highly controversial deal would create a crisis of legitimacy in American politics and actually undermine trust in the system of global commerce they’re trying to support.  Finally, the specter of a lame duck TPP push could also be the campaign gift to Donald Trump that he and his donors couldn’t buy.

Opposing TPP is the right thing to do.  But it is also the politically smart thing to do.  Hillary Clinton is running for President in opposition to TPP—it is time for Democrats to unify and help her provide a clear choice for voters opposed to unfair trade rules.

I’ve known Hillary Clinton personally for four decades, and I appreciate her strong opposition to the TPP “before and after the election.”   The Hillary Clinton that I know has been a dedicated lifelong fighter for causes—including quality healthcare, environmental protection, and full employment—that are antithetical to the TPP.  In voting against the Central American Free Trade Agreement as a Senator, she demonstrated discretion on trade deals. She required Tim Kaine to make a strong statement of opposition to the TPP as a precondition for joining the Democratic ticket. Most importantly, she wants to go even further than stopping new corporate trade deals, promising the United Auto Workers that she would seek to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement as well.

Trump has managed to exploit the trade issue for political gain, as former Democratic Governor of Pennsylvania Ed Rendell has warned, and hopes to convince voters that Hillary’s TPP opposition is insincere.  This is despite his utter unwillingness to address the hypocrisy on his side of the aisle and in his own life.  He picked one of the foremost corporate ideologues and TPP cheerleaders as his own vice presidential candidate. He’s entirely failed to address the fact that corporate trade deals rely on the overwhelming support of Congressional Republicans—who, by and large, remain wedding to their Wall Street and Big Oil contributors more than to the public interest. Trump himself, of course, personally outsourced countless jobs overseas with his own companies (and first-hand accounts indicate that he never expressed any concern about denying jobs to American workers). If Donald Trump will not sacrifice a couple dollars to make his ties in America, what makes us think he’ll make sacrifices to block Congressional Republicans on TPP?

Hillary Clinton, by contrast, has shown her strong capability to lead on trade throughout the campaign.  She's gone well beyond words, working with the foremost critics of TPP, including Sen. Sherrod Brown, labor leaders, environmental groups, and other key stakeholders fighting for fairer trade.  Trump has done the exact opposite, and will cede authority to Congressional Republicans who prioritize the pro-corporate trade agenda above all else.

It’s now up to President Obama and the very small number of pro-TPP Democrats in Congress to follow Hillary’s lead.  Allowing the possibility of a lame duck TPP vote to remain on the table wouldn’t just undermine trust in government and validate perceptions of rigged system—it could play into Donald Trump’s small and unsteady hands, with potentially disastrous consequences for the country.

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Conyers Announces Reauthorization of Trade Adjustment Assistance for Michigan Workers

WASHINGTON – Today, Congressman John Conyers, Jr. (Mich. 13) announced that petitions are now available under the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) Reauthorization Act of 2015. 

Dean of the U.S. House
of Representatives
John Conyers,Jr.

“Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) is an integral part of getting thousands of workers back on their feet.  While too many Americans have lost jobs due to unfair trade practices, TAA provides an important first step to helping them recover,” said Rep. Conyers, Jr..

This most recent reauthorization provides expanded eligibility to workers who have lost their jobs due to trade agreements—offering opportunity to many Americans who were left out of previous iterations of TAA, even if their job loss occurred more than a year ago.  This includes reconsideration for those who petitioned for assistance earlier this year but were rejected.

Since it was first authorized under the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, Trade Adjustment Assistance has been a lifeline for millions of hardworking Americans.  The legislation provides job training support, career counseling, income support for workers in training programs, and many others who have had their jobs affected by trade.  If trade is believed to have played a large role in layoffs, then an employer, a group of three or more workers, a union or worker representative, or an American Job Center representative can apply for TAA benefits on behalf of the impacted workers.

The recent reauthorization of TAA will provide workers with opportunities to obtain the skills, credentials, and support they need to obtain meaningful jobs for in-demand professions—offering assistance to an estimated 100,000 workers.These new expansions include up to 130 weeks of benefits that help workers pay their bills while they engage in two-year training programs.  It also includes eligibility for service sector workers, restoring provisions that President Obama had previously signed into law, but expired at the end of 2013.  Importantly, these benefits would be applicable retroactively, meaning that an estimated 17,500 service workers who were left without benefits in the last 17 months can apply for assistance.

For more information on eligibility, please visit www.doleta.gov/tradeact/.  To find the American Job Center nearest you visit www.servicelocator.org or call 1-877-US2-JOBS.  The deadline for applying for retroactive benefits and services endsSeptember 27, 2015.

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GOP Economics: Export American Jobs Rather Than American Products

By John Conyers, Jr.

Dean of the U.S. House
of Represesntatives
John Conyers, Jr.

Earlier this year, GOP standard-bearers Paul Ryan and Ted Cruz penned an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal highlighting their support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, two massive trade deals with Asia and Europe. Congressman Ryan and Senator Cruz built their argument on a simple premise: Trade is good for exports. "These two agreements," wrote Ryan and Cruz, "would mean greater access to a billion customers for American manufacturers, farmers and ranchers."

So it's curious that -- given this supposed emphasis on exports -- the party of Paul Ryan and Ted Cruz is now fighting hard to destroy one of our main instruments for promoting the sale of American products to foreign markets: the Export-Import bank. This 81-year-old institution, which helps U.S. firms finance export operations, sustained 164,000 export-related American jobs last year and has created orsustained 1.3 million private sector jobs since 2009. In sharp contrast to Ryan and Cruz's two beloved trade agreements with Asia and Europe -- which are nearly certain to cost American jobs and undercut workers' livelihoods -- the Export-Import Bank operates at no cost to taxpayers.

On June 30th, just as Congress was quietly passing legislation to "Fast Track" the trade agreements over widespread Democratic objections, GOP leaders allowed the Export-Import Bank's authorization to expire. The bank is now temporarily out of commission, and Republicans show no interest in allowing a vote to revive it. 

When Franklin Roosevelt created the Export-Import bank during one of the darkest periods of the Great Depression, he was addressing the need for a coherent national economic strategy to promote job creation and livable wages. By providing loans at low interest rates to foreign entities to buy American goods, the federal government could, he reasoned, directly support domestic job creation and living standards in a cost-effective way. This vision has been borne out over the last eight decades. The bank had been an important part of our national economic strategy since foreign countries have often demanded financing as a precondition for importing American goods. Foreign competitors including China have created and expanded their own export-import banks to compete with the United States. Last year, the Export-Import bank actually returned $675 million to our federal Treasury, mostly through the interest and other fees it charges on its loans.

In rejecting federal export promotion tools, rejecting investments in highways and green energy, and rejecting essential funding for education and healthcare, the Republicans are left with just one element of an economic strategy: NAFTA-style trade agreements that force U.S. workers into direct competition with workers in countries like Vietnam, where the minimum wage runs below 60 cents per hour. As economists David Autor, David Dorn and Gordon Hanson demonstrated in their research on U.S.-China trade relations, increasing direct competition with large low-wage countries increases unemployment and reduces wages in the United States. Deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership simply empower multinational corporations with maximum influence to shape rules and standards at the expense of everyone else. In short, under the GOP economic strategy, there's just one sure thing we'll export to the rest of the world: American jobs. 

While quite a bit has changed in the 81 years since Franklin Roosevelt launched the Export-Import Bank, one fact remains the same: America needs a coherent national economic strategy focused on raising wages and living standards. We can implement such a strategy by investing in education, innovation, infrastructure, sensible export promotion, and a strong safety net--the genuine determinants of success in a competitive global economy. Having seen the consequences of the GOP's cut-and-run economics, Americans are ready for an affirmative agenda.

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Rep. John Conyers:Why the TPP Is a Terrible Deal for Most Americans

Trade agreements boost economic growth, while destroying lives and livelihoods.

By John Conyers, Jr.

Dean of the U.S. House
of Representatives
John Conyers, Jr.

Earlier this year, former Florida governor Jeb Bush travelled to my hometown of Detroit to explain his political philosophy. In a speech before local business leaders, Bush argued that the aim of government should be to promote “economic growth above all.”

“If a law or a rule doesn’t contribute to growth,” he asked, “why do it?” If a law subtracts from growth, why are we discussing it?”

The younger Bush brother is in good company. For the better part of a century, economic growth—as measured by the Gross Domestic Product (GDP)—has been the single most important guidepost for government decision-making. Nowhere is this clearer than in the current debate raging in Washington over the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement, wherein the deal’s proponents from the Chamber of Commerce to the Treasury Department routinely reach for their trump card: “Trade is good for economic growth.”

There’s just one problem with this line of thinking. Economic growth—our raw output of goods and services—is a questionable measure of our success or well-being as a nation. Growth, in some cases, runs counter to priorities that matter deeply to our people. As a short-term measure of national production, GDP often tends to increase as rates of crime, pollution, and household debt rise. Both Hurricane Sandy and the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster arguably boosted economic growth because of the activity associated with cleanup and rebuilding.

As the House considers whether to “fast track” the TPP and other coming trade deals, I hope my colleagues will consider a broader set of questions than the one that Jeb Bush presented during his visit to Detroit. Instead of asking about implications for economic growth, I hope my colleagues ask: “Is this policy good for living standards? For the health of the planet? For creating jobs with dignity, promoting peace, and ensuring an educated populace?”

It’s hard to imagine the TPP passing muster when we consider values other than economic growth.

Start with jobs and living standards. What Nobel laureate Paul Samuelson wrote in 1955 rings true today: under a system of free trade, “national product would go up, but the relative and absolute share of labor might go down.” It’s a polite way of saying that free trade means more opportunity for big industry and investors, but that workers will face new threats to their jobs and wages. This is particularly true when we open up to direct competitions with countries like Vietnam—a TPP participant country where the minimum wage runs below 60 cents per hour. As economists David Autor, David Dorn, and Gordon Hanson have shown, increasing direct competition with a larger low-wage country, China, has increased unemployment and lowered wages in the United States. While workers disadvantaged by trade are supposed to be compensated with Trade Adjustment Assistance funding for retraining assistance and income support, the funding, at least since the NAFTA era, has never added up to the amount of the losses. Nowhere is this more evident than in my Detroit-based Congressional District, where outsourcing decisions in the wake of NAFTA have meant much more than lost jobs and wages: The trade deals have meant a vicious cycle of abandoned production facilities, lost population, a diminished municipal tax base, lower funding for key city services like drinking water, and, in turn, more population loss. “Adjustment assistance” can hardly begin to compensate for this. No marginal increase to GDP can justify the suffering and lost opportunity.

As for health and the environment, both the TPP and the forthcoming Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership present a series of unforeseen risks that cannot be easily quantified in economic terms. Consider how a key element of the trade deals known as the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanism would allow foreign corporations to challenge US health, safety, and environmental protections. If US regulators ban production of a toxic chemical manufactured by a foreign firm for fears that it may end up in our food system or in our air, the manufacturer of that chemical could, under the terms of a trade agreement, challenge our government before a special international ISDS tribunal for frustrating its expectations and ultimately demand compensation for anticipated future profits. The special tribunal—often comprised of highly compensated corporate lawyers rather than professional judges—could require US taxpayers to pay the firm millions in damages, and the ruling could not be challenged in our domestic courts. This shadowy system is already the reality under NAFTA and other trade agreements, and it would be expanded dramatically under the TPP. Under the existing deals with this parallel legal system for foreign corporations, a Swedish company has sued Germany because the German government decided to phase out nuclear power after the Fukushima disaster, a US firm has sued Canada for a fracking moratorium along the lines of the one in New York, and the tobacco giant Philip Morris has sued Australia and Uruguay for implementing anti-smoking laws. It’s easy to imagine a carbon tax or other future action to stop climate change coming under attack from corporate polluters in an ISDS court. Just the possibility of such lawsuits could dissuade local, state, and national governments from taking needed steps to protect citizens from environmental or health risks.

The tradeoff inherent in the Trans-Pacific Partnership—risking wages, health, and environmental standards in exchange for the promise of some additional economic growth—is a terrible deal for most Americans. It’s an even worse deal when you consider that, according to recent estimates by the US Department of Agriculture, the quantifiable economic growth will be negligible and accrue mostly to multinational corporations seeking to expand their reach.

So why are prominent politicians across the political spectrum pursuing the deal? While some argue that it’s a matter of exercising foreign-policy leadership in Asia and containing China, these rationales collapse under closer scrutiny. As numerous US officials have reiterated, China is itself free to join the trade pact. A 2013 report by the Pentagon’s Defense Science Board made the case that the offshoring of the US manufacturing base—a process accelerated by TPP-style trade agreements, including NAFTA—presents a critical risk to US military readiness. As Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch has documented, erroneous foreign policy and national security arguments are frequently used as “the sales pitch of last resort” for controversial trade agreements.

Here’s the real reason the TPP remains on the Washington agenda: The political philosophy that Jeb Bush extolled during his visit to Detroit—economic growth above all—remains the order of the day among the nation’s top policymakers.

If we are to succeed in restoring our battered manufacturing base, rebuilding our great cities, defeating climate change, and protecting the health and safety of our citizens, we need a new worldview in Washington—one that enshrines real human thriving rather than raw output.

Senator Robert F. Kennedy understood this when, nearly half a century ago, he decried policymakers’ overreliance on economic growth as a guide for decision-making. In a famous address at the University of Kansas in 1968, he criticized GDP as a measure of national progress, pointing out that the measure “counts special locks for our doors and the jails for those who break them” but not “the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play.”

The looming battle over trade policy pits Jeb Bush’s worldview squarely against Robert F. Kennedy’s. It’s an open question which side many of my Democratic colleagues in Congress will choose.

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Bicameral Group of Members Raises Alarm on Japan’s Possible Interest in Joining TPP Negotiations

(WASHINGTON) – Today, dozens of House members and Senators are sending a letter to President Obama later today raising the alarm about Japan’s possible interest in joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations between the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) and several Pacific Rim countries. The letter, still circulating for signatures, will go to President Obama later this afternoon. Current signatories are below. After signing the letter, Congressman John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) issued the following statement:

U.S. Representative
John Conyers, Jr.

“With the auto industry just now regaining its fiscal footing and profitability, it’s a very serious development that USTR is considering opening the domestic auto  industry up to unfair competition from one of the most restrictive markets for automobiles in the world,” said Conyers.

“It is incumbent that USTR carefully scrutinize Japan’s potential entry into the Trans-Pacific Partnership.  American auto workers and manufacturers can’t afford another free trade deal that adds to our country’s $76 billion annual trade deficit with Japan.”

Letter to President Barack Obama from Bicameral Members of Congress on Japan’s possible interest in joining... by Beverly Tran

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Lawmakers urge close look at Russia's IP practices

By Vicki Needham - 11/11/11 10:04 AM ET

As Russia moves to join the World Trade Organization, top lawmakers on the House and Senate Judiciary panels are pressing U.S. trade officials to examine its intellectual property practices. 

In a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas), ranking member John Conyers (D-Mich.), Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and ranking member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) expressed "serious concerns over continuing gaps and lapses in the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights concerns" by Russia. 

“There are a number of significant concerns with respect to the denial of adequate and effective IPR [intellectual property rights] protection, or the denial of equitable market access for persons that rely on IPR protection, in Russia,” the panel members wrote this week. 

The lawmakers are insisting that a "high standard accession package will be essential before both houses of Congress can consider a vote to remove Russia" from the Jackson-Vanik amendment — a 37-year-old provision crafted to put pressure on Communist nations for human-rights abuses and emigration policies, which has been "a symbol of lingering tensions in the U.S.-Russia relationship," according to the Council on Foreign Relations. 

President Obama said on Thursday that he wants to work with Congress to end the application of the amendment, which most experts argue isn't relevant anymore.  

On Thursday, Russia cleared its final hurdle for its long-awaited entry into the WTO, a move strongly backed by the Obama administration. 

"The Government of Russia must demonstrate via transparent, substantive and prompt actions its commitment to adhere fully to the obligations it will assume as a future member of the WTO," the lawmakers wrote. "Not only is the credibility of the rules-based system of international trade at stake, but should Russia fail to conform to its obligations in a thorough and timely manner, the adverse consequences for U.S. innovators and their workers will continue to be significant.”

Lawmakers citied examples such as widespread counterfeiting and piracy of hard goods, storage of pirated CDs and DVDs on several government-controlled military-industrial sites and gaps in Russian law and enforcement efforts with respect to piracy over the Internet, according to USTR's recent report on the state of global intellectual property. 

"With respect to gaps in Russian law, your report states that it is the position of the United States to urge Russia to enact online infringement legislation that addresses all forms of piracy over the Internet and provides for the swift removal of infringing content," they wrote.  

The report also encourages Russia to enact legislation establishing a specialized intellectual property court and calls for Russia’s enforcement officials to increase investigations, and for Russian prosecutors to seek deterrent penalties in judicial proceedings.

Russia remains on a watch list that identifies countries with "the most onerous or egregious" intellectual property policies and practices that have the "greatest adverse impact on relevant products of the United States," they wrote.

They also noted a separate report to Congress by the Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive that identifies Russian cyber-espionage as a "dangerous threat to our economy and national security."  

While they acknowledged that progress has been made since 2006, when the United States and Russia reached a bilateral agreement on intellectual protection and enforcement in Russia, they also agreed that the reports "raise serious questions about the intention and commitment of the Russian government to abide by and enforce the obligations it will assume as a member of the WTO."

"Not only is the credibility of the rules-based system of international trade at stake, but should Russia fail to conform to its obligations in a thorough and timely manner, the adverse consequences for U.S. innovators and their workers will continue to be significant," they wrote. 

Letter to Ambassador Ron Kirk From U.S. House Judiciary Regrading Violations of Intellectual Property Right...

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