[CTC] Twelve Senate Dems Urge Deletion Of Customs Bill's Climate Language

[Arthur Stamoulis]

Inside U.S. Trade 
Daily News
Twelve Senate Dems Urge Deletion Of Customs Bill's Climate Language
Posted: July 20, 2015
Twelve Democratic senators are calling on the conference committee for a pending customs and trade enforcement bill to delete proposed language that would prevent the United States from negotiating provisions on climate change in trade agreements, amid doubts that the conference will happen at all.

In a July 17 letter <http://insidetrade.com/node/148925> to the seven Senate conferees, the Democratic lawmakers argue that the climate change language in the House-passed customs bill is “misplaced, ambiguous, and serves only to send the wrong message to the world on the seriousness of the United States on climate policy.”

The language in question in the House version of the bill, H.R. 644, would amend the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) law to ensure that “trade agreements do not require changes to U.S. law or obligate the United States with respect to global warming or climate change.” This language would be inserted into the “overall negotiating objections” portion of the TPA statute. No such amendment is contained in the Senate version of H.R. 644.

But there are signs that the fight over this language may end up going nowhere. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) for the first time since the enactment of TPA and other trade legislation on June 29 has not listed a motion to go to conference on the customs bill on the chamber's weekly agenda. His office included that item on the House agenda for two weeks in a row, but ultimately no motion was made.

One trade lobbyist said the delay in going to conference stemmed from staff being still hung up on differences in the language on currency between the House and Senate bills, and that a conference on the bill is unlikely before the August recess. This lobbyist also gave the bill a "50-50" chance of being passed into law at all at this point.

The Senate, meanwhile, has already named its conferees for the customs bill. They are Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX), John Thune (R-SD), Johnny Isakson (R-GA), Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI).

The 12 senators -- half of whom sit on the Finance Committee -- argue that the language is out of placebecause the U.S. has never negotiated on climate change in a trade agreement. The State Department is the lead in those multilateral negotiations, and any international treaty they brought forward would have to be ratified by Congress, the signatories note.

In addition, the 12 senators say it is unclear how the climate change language meshes with the current environmental language within TPA. Under TPA, the administration is directed to uphold within its FTAs seven specific multilateral environmental agreements (MEA), as well as any other MEA the U.S. and the FTA partner have in common. The seven MEAs deal endangered species of wild fauna and flora, the ozone layer, pollution from ships, wetlands, Antarctic marine life, whaling and tropical tuna.

Other environmental obligations within TPA would prevent the U.S.'s FTA partners from deliberately weakening their environmental laws so as to attract more trade and investment. “It is unclear how the House climate language in the Customs bill relates to these objectives,” the senators wrote.

Finally, the 12 senators argue that the climate change language “sends the wrong message” about the seriousness of the United States in addressing the global problem. They also make a plea to their colleagues who disagree with them on climate change, saying their time is better spent debating the issue “rather than inserting ambiguous and counterproductive language into an unrelated trade bill.”

The signatories are Sens. Michael Bennet (D-CO), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Patty Murray (D-WA), Bill Nelson (D-FL), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Mark Warner (D-VA), Thomas Carper (D-DE), Chris Coons (D-DE), Benjamin Cardin (D-MD), Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Claire McCaskill (D-MO).

Bennet, Nelson, Warner, Carper, Cardin and Cantwell sit on Finance. All of the signatories except Cardin voted for final passage of the TPA bill.
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