[CTC] U.S. Chamber Business Survey on China

[Andrew Gussert]

TPP as Backdoor Colombia FTA?

http://citizen.typepad.com/eyesontrade/2010/03/tpp-as-backdoor-colombia-fta.
html

March 22, 2010


In Australia last week, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR)
participated in the first round of the talks of the Obama administration for
the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement (the Bush administration
already had three rounds of talks in 2008 with Chile, New Zealand, Brunei,
and Singapore before the TPP process expanded to include Australia, Peru,
and Vietnam). The USTR revealed little about what was discussed last week in
its statement
<http://www.ustr.gov/about-us/press-office/press-releases/2010/march/ustr-ne
gotiators-report-successful-first-round-trans>  announcing the conclusion of
this round of talks, but there was one intriguing bit of information that
flew under the radar of most of the news media covering the TPP talks.  The
Foreign Minister of Colombia, Jaime Bermudez, was in Australia from
Wednesday to Saturday of last week for meetings with Australian officials. 


 <http://citizen.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83452507269e201310fcc7d85970c-pi>
Colombia_and_Australia_Foreign_Ministers

The Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Stephen Smith, hinted that
Colombia could join the TPP process in a
<http://www.foreignminister.gov.au/transcripts/2010/100318_colombia.html>
joint press conference with Bermudez:

But the other important matter we discussed, and the [Foreign] Minister [of
Colombia, Jaime Bermudez,] will have a conversation, a detailed conversation
with [Australian Minister for Trade] Simon Crean about this, of course we
saw this week, a very important trade Asia Pacific initiative, with the
start of the Trans Pacific Partnership discussions. 

Currently we have four members of the TPP, we now have eight countries
involved in those discussions. The [Foreign] Minister [of Colombia] is going
to have a detailed discussion with Simon Crean, but of course there is also
some rationale, given that in the TPP we find Chile a member, Peru, one of
the negotiating eight. There is a rationale for Colombia also putting itself
forward in due course for that, and we're looking forward to a good
conversation between Simon Crean and the Minister on that front as well.

The possible entry of Colombia into the TPP illustrates the unprecedented
nature of the TPP.  The TPP negotiating partners, including the USTR,
envision structuring the TPP so that countries could join the agreement more
or less at will after its implementation.  According to a December 15, 2009
article in Inside U.S. Trade, the USTR already "has extended an invitation"
to Japan, Malaysia, and Korea to join the TPP before or after talks
conclude.  

The potential for expanding the TPP to include more countries after the
agreement is finalized creates huge concerns about its impact on democracy
and sovereignty.  Congress has already told the USTR that Colombia must
address concerns about its very poor human and labor rights record (among
other issues) before the Colombia FTA can be reconsidered.  Could an
automatic expansion process in the TPP bind the U.S. to a trade agreement
with Colombia without Congress ever voting on it?  What about a trade
agreement with Burma or China?  

If there will be a possibility of allowing countries into the TPP after it
is implemented, the USTR must ensure that the approval process for any new
proposed TPP partners is exactly the same as it is for a new trade agreement
outside of the TPP, including a vote on the floors of the House and Senate.
The TPP should also include a democracy clause that would require TPP
parties to have democratic forms of government so that we do not have a
repeat of the Honduras-CAFTA
<http://citizen.typepad.com/.m/eyesontrade/2009/12/trade-preferences-suspend
ed-in-the-name-of-democracy.html>  debacle of last year. Otherwise, the TPP
could take us down a dangerous road where we could be stuck with trade
agreements with some very unsavory governments.

Posted by Travis McArthur at 6:02pm in Andean
<http://citizen.typepad.com/eyesontrade/andean_and_panama_ftas/>  and Panama
FTAs , Asian FTAs <http://citizen.typepad.com/eyesontrade/asian_ftas/>  ,
CAFTA <http://citizen.typepad.com/eyesontrade/cafta/>  | Permalink
<http://citizen.typepad.com/eyesontrade/2010/03/tpp-as-backdoor-colombia-fta
.html>  

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