[CTC] JEC Report Bashes TPP, Citing Faults On IP, Financial Services, Market Access

[Arthur Stamoulis]

Thursday, March 03, 2016

Inside US trade
JEC Report Bashes TPP, Citing Faults On IP, Financial Services, Market Access
March 03, 2016

The bicameral Joint Economic Committee (JEC) of the U.S. Congress stepped up Republican criticism of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) by including language in a formal report on the U.S. economy that blasts the deal as falling short of congressional demands in the areas of pharmaceutical intellectual property (IP) protection, financial services data flows and goods market access.

The JEC, which is led by senior members of the Senate Finance and House Ways & Means committees, in its March 1 report emphasized that Congress will only approve a TPP agreement that meets the standards prescribed in the 2015 fast-track bill, adding that the deal as negotiated appears to miss that mark.

“Unfortunately, at this stage it seems the President has fallen short in the negotiations with regard to a number of significant elements,” the report said. “For example, the President has failed to achieve adequate intellectual property protections for innovative American pharmaceuticals. Such protections are foundational for U.S. trade and must be robust to give American businesses the confidence to sell their products abroad."

“The current deal also fails to protect proprietary data stored by financial services companies. It also inexplicably denies market access for certain U.S. goods. Hopefully, the Administration will choose to address these concerns prior to any congressional action on the TPP agreement,” the report said.

The complaint on pharmaceutical IP refers to the period of market exclusivity for biologics, which some Republicans including Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT) view as too short. The financial services language appears to refer to a carveout of this sector from the general TPP ban on government requirements that companies store data locally.

A JEC spokeswoman did not immediately provide a specific response to a question on which goods the committee feels were denied market access in the TPP deal. Ways & Means Republicans have complained that market access outcomes on dairy and rice did not go far enough.

While criticizing the negotiated outcome, the JEC report argued that a strong TPP deal “holds great promise in terms of increasing America’s economic and strategic influence in the region.” It noted that the TPP is a key element of the administration's rebalancing toward the Asia-Pacific region, and that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle view the TPP as a tool to set the rules for trade so that China does not.

“The TPP offers the United States the opportunity to both generate new, high-paying jobs here at home and establish an economic framework that will benefit American interests over the long term,” it said.

The JEC issued the report in response to the “Economic Report of the President <http://insidetrade.com/node/152864>,” a three-page document submitted in February by the White House along with a roughly 400-page report on the U.S. economy by the president's Council of Economic Advisers. The president did not mention the TPP in his report, although he did list “opening U.S. exports to new markets” as one of the steps he would take this year to boost the economy.

The CEA report included a two-and-a-half page box that reiterates administration talking points in favor of TPP and cites studies about the economic impact of the deal by the World Bank and Peterson Institute for International Economics. But the CEA report does not include any new economic analysis of TPP.

The JEC report also includes minority views, but these do not touch upon TPP.

The JEC chairman is Sen. Daniel Coats (R-IN), who sits on Finance, while the vice chair is Rep. Pat Tiberi (R-OH), a member of Ways & Means. The ranking member is Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY). Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) also sits on the JEC; he has openly spoken out against TPP on the campaign trail.
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