USTR clears advisers to read TPP draft

[Recursion]

("Today" in this article is July 9th, last Thursday; if there was a DU thread on this, search isn't finding it.)

http://www.politico.com/morningtrade/0715/morningtrade19070.html

Starting today, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative’s advisers will receive access to the full negotiating text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a spokesman for the agency confirmed Wednesday.

"This week, a diverse group of trade advisers — including labor unions, industry experts, environmental groups and public advocates — will begin viewing draft TPP negotiating text as part of the congressionally established trade advisory process," the spokesman told POLITICO.

The advisers will receive full access to the draft negotiation text to ensure they can adequately prepare congressionally mandated reports on TPP, the agency said. “The Obama administration firmly believes that the input of a wide array of voices is integral to trade negotiations, which is why we have grown the size and membership of our trade advisory committees," the spokesman said.

USTR has more than 20 advisory committees, the majority of which are composed of industry representatives and focus on various sectors. The agency’s statement indicates the Labor Advisory Committee, which represents unions, and environmental advocates on the Trade and Environment Policy Advisory Committee will receive the same access as business representatives. This is the first time USTR has released the whole text to cleared advisers, an industry source said.

[wildbilln864]

1. k & r & thanks! n/t

[90-percent]

2. The Obama administration firmly believes that the input of a wide array of voices......

"The Obama administration firmly believes that the input of a wide array of voices is integral to trade negotiations,.."

This TPP was crafted in secret by 600 corporate lobbyists. That seems like a preposterously narrow array of voices that created this multi-national corporate wet dream. Why were there no average people or union reps or consumer groups or environmental groups or citizen advocacy groups include in the crafting of the TPP?

Is there any chance that us average peons will be able to even read this before it passes and we're forced to live with it? I really resent the secrecy and the "trust us, we know what we're doing" vibe to this entire TPP process. The approval rating of Congress is at 6% and this sort of legislation is one of the reasons Americans have virtually no trust in our elected reps what so ever. I certainly have no trust they will vote with the best interests of their constituents in mind.

The corporate overlords are accelerating their brazenness as they've learned from the 2000 Bush v. Gore decision and the bank bailouts and the bogus wars that us Americans have no limits to tolerating extreme government malfeasance in service of the current system of legal political bribery. I wouldn't be surprised if they pass a law forcing all Americans to wear their underwear outside their clothes in the next year or two. Believe me, if the Oligarchs wanted it to happen, it would be law!

-90% jimmy

[Recursion]

3. This TPP was crafted in secret by 600 corporate lobbyists

I really wish one person claiming that would provide evidence for that claim.

[Hoyt]

4. Oh, bull. Corporate lobbyists didn't craft the agreement.

[Elwood P Dowd]

9. Wall Street Corporate executives run the USTR.

When they leave their USTR assignment and go back to Wall Street, they make seven figure salaries along with seven figure bonuses they were paid for crafting garbage like TPP.

[Hoyt]

16. I guess you think you should be at the table. Most of the negotiaters are career diplomats,

including ambassadors and international trade lawyers and experts.

Even Froman has a bunch of government experience, not to mention education. Sure he worked at Citigroup for a few years IN EMERGING MARKETS, just the experience we need for TPP.

Your whining about not being heard is laughable.

[Elwood P Dowd]

17. Your support of corporate crooks and the USTR revolving door is laughable.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026798607

The TPP, corporate backers, & revolving door at the USTR
These articles document the United States Trade Representatives office members going in and out of high paid jobs as lobbyists and other similar positions for corporations that vastly benefit from American free trade agreements :

Ron Kirk joins Gibson Dunn’s Dallas office

By MARK CURRIDEN, The Texas Lawbook - 01 April 2013 08:34 AM

The moment Ron Kirk announced in January that he was leaving the Obama administration, he became one of the most sought after international dealmakers in the country.

Global law firms, multinational corporations, private equity firms and lobbying groups offered Kirk big bucks, viewing the recently retired U.S. trade representative as this generation’s Bob Strauss or Vernon Jordan — a politically connected lawyer with extensive contacts and expertise in international business transactions.

Kirk has made his decision. On Monday, he officially joins Los Angeles-based Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, a 1,100-lawyer firm with 18 offices around the globe. The former Dallas mayor will be senior counsel in the firm’s Dallas office. He is expected to play a key role in major corporate mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures and other deals around the world.

Read more:
http://www.dallasnews.com/business/headlines/20130401-ron-kirk-joins-gibson-dunns-dallas-office.ece



USTR Nominee Froman Called 'One Of The Most Egregious Examples Of The Way The Revolving Door Works Between Gov't And Business'

by Mike Masnick - Mon, May 6th 2013 8:41am

After posting a bit about Michael Froman, the new nominee for USTR, I was already skeptical that he'd be any improvement over the predecessor, Ron Kirk. After all, Froman was deeply involved in three of the worst free trade agreements that the US has negotiated over the past few years, which more or less set the model for the ambitious and dangerously misguided ACTA and TPP agreements. However, some others have pointed out that it may be even worse, highlighting a Felix Salmon blog post from 2009, in which he calls Michael Froman out as being an "egregious example" of the revolving door problem we've highlighted between regulators and the businesses they regulate.

Michael Froman's: "one of the most egregious examples — up there with Bob Rubin, literally — we’ve yet seen of the way the revolving door works between business and government generally, and between Citigroup and Treasury in particular."

That's troubling, to say the least. Salmon points to a Matt Taibbi piece for Rolling Stone that highlights some very questionable activity on the part of Froman, including keeping his job at Citibank while helping to select the economic team for Obama's first term... the very folks who would be in charge of regulating Citibank.

"Leading the search for the president’s new economic team was his close friend and Harvard Law classmate Michael Froman, a high-ranking executive at Citigroup. During the campaign, Froman had emerged as one of Obama’s biggest fundraisers, bundling $200,000 in contributions and introducing the candidate to a host of heavy hitters — chief among them his mentor Bob Rubin, the former co-chairman of Goldman Sachs who served as Treasury secretary under Bill Clinton. Froman had served as chief of staff to Rubin at Treasury, and had followed his boss when Rubin left the Clinton administration to serve as a senior cou"nselor to Citigroup (a massive new financial conglomerate created by deregulatory moves pushed through by Rubin himself).


Read more:
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130503/14341222941/ustr-nominee-froman-called-one-most-egregious-examples-way-revolving-door-works-between-govt-business.shtml



Wall Street Pays Bankers to Work in Government and It Doesn't Want Anyone to Know
By David Dayen - Feb 4th 2015

Citigroup is one of three Wall Street banks attempting to keep hidden their practice of paying executives multimillion-dollar awards for entering government service. In letters delivered to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over the last month, Citi, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley seek exemption from a shareholder proposal, filed by the AFL-CIO labor coalition, which would force them to identify all executives eligible for these financial rewards, and the specific dollar amounts at stake. Critics argue these “golden parachutes” ensure more financial insiders in policy positions and favorable treatment toward Wall Street.

“As shareholders of these banks, we want to know how much money we have promised to give away to senior executives if they take government jobs,” said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka in a statement. “It’s a simple question, but the banks don’t want to answer it. What are they trying to hide?”
~Snip~

U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman received over $4 million in multiple exit payments from Citigroup when he left for the Obama Administration.

~Snip~

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/120967/wall-street-pays-bankers-work-government-and-wants-it-secret



Here’s why Obama trade negotiators push the interests of Hollywood and drug companies

By Timothy B. Lee - November 26, 2013

Earlier this month, the transparency organization WikiLeaks leaked the "intellectual property" chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade agreement that is being negotiated in secret by Pacific Rim nations. The draft text showed that the positions taken by U.S. negotiators largely mirrored the provisions of U.S. law, but the U.S. negotiating position also had an unmistakeable bias toward expanding the rights of copyright and patent holders

~Snip~

This is your USTR on drugs

On May 3, 2004, the United States and Australia signed a bilateral trade agreement. The agreement included a section on intellectual property that had numerous provisions favorable to pharmaceutical manufacturers. For example, it barred generic drug makers seeking approval for their drugs from citing safety or efficacy information originally submitted by brand-name drug makers for a period of five years after the information is submitted, making it more difficult for generic drug makers to enter the market.

The lead American negotiator was Ralph Ives, who was promoted to Assistant USTR for Pharmaceutical Policy soon after the negotiations concluded. He was aided by Claude Burcky, Deputy Assistant USTR for Intellectual Property. Less than three months after the Australia agreement was signed, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that both men would take jobs at pharmaceutical or medical device companies. Their new employers stood to benefit from some of the pro-patent-holder provisions of the treaty. Ives took a job at AdvaMed, a trade group representing medical device manufacturers. Burcky moved to the pharmaceutical and medical device company Abbott Labs.

Since then, Abbott has hired two other USTR veterans, Andrea Durkin and Karen Hauda, according to the women's LinkedIn pages. Another USTR official, Kira Alvarez, has gone through the revolving door twice over the last 15 years. Her LinkedIn profile indicates that she served at USTR from 2000 to 2003, spent four years at the pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly, and then returned to USTR in 2008 as Deputy Assistant USTR for Intellectual Property Enforcement. She was there for five years before she took a job at AbbVie, a pharmaceutical firm that spun off from Abbott earlier this year.

~Snip~

Read more:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/11/26/heres-why-obama-trade-negotiators-push-the-interests-of-hollywood-and-drug-companies/

[msongs]

10. obama didn't have a hand in drafting this agreement? nt

[GoneFishin]

13. Bullshit.

[90-percent]

6. googling "who wrote the TPP"

https://sojo.net/articles/insider-list

http://www.flushthetpp.org/tpp-corporate-insiders/

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150605/11483831239/revealed-emails-show-how-industry-lobbyists-basically-wrote-tpp.shtml

https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2015/05/11/elizabeth-warren-and-rosa-delauro-who-writing-tpp/2FQZAV6uz9GGQI6pe3cd0K/story.html

-90% Jimmy

[Recursion]

8. Notice how, in those emails, the industry reps expressed surprise at what they saw? (nt)

[aspirant]

5. So now all of Congress and their complete staff, Sierra Club etc

can go to the USTR offices and copy, take notes and get complete transcripts to go as well as being free to talk about everything?

When is this complete transcript going to be on public view?

[Recursion]

7. No, this is still in the USTR's hands. The TPA specifies when it goes public

Last edited Mon Jul 13, 2015, 06:41 AM - Edit history (1)

Once the negotiations conclude, the President submits the treaty with a pre-drafted bill to implement it to Boehner and Biden (Biden is President of the Senate; in practice Biden will just hand it straight to McConnell's office). At that point the bill is public. In no less than 60 days and no more than 90 days, Congress must vote on the bill as submitted; if it does not pass (or it is not voted on) then the treaty is not ratified and we're more or less back to the drawing board.

Sierra isn't on TEPAC (the environmental advisory committee), but WWF and the Nature Conservancy are. The full list is here:

https://ustr.gov/about-us/advisory-committees/industry-trade-advisory-committees-itac

[GoneFishin]

14. So then the answer is no. So it is still secret. So they get 6 years. We get 8 weeks.

Sounds fair.

I am sure that in a mere 6 years that 600 $1000/hour corporate lawyers could never craft legal language that a bunch volunteers could not decipher in 8 weeks and still have time to expose it's one-sided anti-democratic nature to the public, with ample time for the public to mobilize and express their extreme displeasure to their democratically elected representatives, in time for their representatives to carefully deliberate on the public's concerns before making any important decisions on the matter.

Doesn't sound like a corporate coup at all.

[Recursion]

15. Right, it becomes public when it's submitted to Congress (nt)

[joshcryer]

11. Surprisingly earlier than I thought it would be.

Could the full text be available before the first Democratic debates? Could prove quite interesting.

[Recursion]

12. Boy, wouldn't it? (nt)