Senators tell Biden admin to halt 'secret negotiations' with foreign trade partners

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American Giant CEO Bayard Winthrop discusses the company’s outlook for the new year and the potential implications of Trump’s tariffs and deregulation agenda.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers is calling on the Biden administration’s trade representative, Catherine Tye, to end what they described as “secret negotiations” with foreign trading partners.

In a letter Wednesday led by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, and signed by 18 of his Senate colleagues, the group accused Thay and the Biden administration of bypassing Congress and failing to adequately engage business leaders. are being pushed to “rush” changes for the country’s two largest free trade agreements With Mexico, Canada and Colombia.

The changes would serve to change the interpretation of investor protection provisions for US businesses that are included in the government’s trade deals with those countries.

“Unfortunately, USTR is pursuing significant changes approved by Congress commercial contracts on a short schedule, away from the public eye, and without meaningful consultation with Congress,” the senators’ letter said. “Robust consultation with Congress and stakeholders is essential to ensure that affected companies and their workers understand what is being proposed and how may affect operations at home and abroad.”

TRUMP’S “FOREIGN REVENUE SERVICE” COMES FROM IMPORTERS, NOT FROM “FOREIGN SOURCES”.

U.S. Trade Representative Catherine Tye speaks with her Mexican counterparts during a joint news conference in the Dean Acheson Auditorium at the State Department’s Harry S. at the Truman Building on September 29, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images/Getty Images)

The ongoing negotiations relate to the interpretation of the investor protection provisions of the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) and the United States-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement.

Currently, U.S. businesses that operate internationally can use third-party tribunals to mediate disputes over business practices with other countries. requirements, reports Reuters.

A group of about 40 Democrats House of Representatives In another letter last month, led by U.S. Representative Lloyd Doggett of Texas, they said they were pleased to hear reports of possible updates to investor protection divisions, arguing that the process of using a third-party intermediary serves businesses too much power to interfere with lawful operations.

The letter called the action a “sensible move,” arguing that investor protection mechanisms allow “foreign corporations” to weaponize international tribunals to bypass a nation’s domestic politics and prioritize business interests at the expense of those countries’ workers, consumers, small businesses and themselves. the environment.

U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas (Getty Images/Getty Images)

“We strongly encourage you to act urgently to eliminate or drastically reduce the ability of multinational corporations to use Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) tribunals as a means of attacking legitimate government actions and extracting unlimited sums of money from the taxpayers of countries on laws and actions. or judgments of courts of sovereign states that the corporations claim conflict with their special ISDS rights and privileges,” the letter said.

CAP- AND TRADE WORKS. New York is planning to FORCE “BIG OIL” to “INVEST” IN “GREEN” BY PAYING FOR EMISSIONS.

In An op-ed: For The Washington Times, GOP senators Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, Kathy Britt of Alabama and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama cited the example of a US construction company, Vulcan Materials, that had been building for decades. infrastructure A limestone spring in the Yucatan. But it has recently faced a campaign to seize its property in Mexico after the country’s government declared in September that the area of the volcano that used its limestone was a protected natural reserve owned by Mexico. part.