WASHINGTON - Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Sander Levin (D-MI) today issued the following statement following the passage in the Senate of Trade Promotion Authority:
“With TPA passed, the focus must now be on the vital outstanding issues in the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations.
“To get TPP on track, the negotiations must now incorporate in language and action core international labor standards, a high level of environmental protection, and the same access to affordable medicines that we included in the May 10th Agreement. We must take steps to be sure our TPP trading partners don’t manipulate their currencies to gain an unfair advantage over our business and workers. We need to insist that our trading partners offer truly reciprocal access to their agricultural and automotive markets. And we need to prevent investors from challenging legitimate public welfare measures in special international tribunals.
“Only then would TPP be moving on the right track, be worthy of the support of the American people, and gain the votes of a much broader coalition of members of Congress than voted for TPA. The issue is not pro-trade versus anti-trade, but whether we shape trade agreements to spread the benefits broadly, including to middle class Americans."
