[CTC] Reichert: Ways & Means GOP Form Five Working Groups On TPP Problems

[Arthur Stamoulis]

Reichert: Ways & Means GOP Form Five Working Groups On TPP Problems

Inside US Trade, March 30, 2016 
House Ways & Means Committee Republicans have formed five working groups addressing their objections to the Trans-Pacific Partnership that cover biologic medicines, financial services data localization, tobacco, agricultural market access and “elevated labor obligations,” trade subcommittee Chairman Dave Reichert (R-WA) said in an interview this week.

The committee is convening meetings of these working groups where lawmakers can engage directly with U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman or National Economic Council Director Jeffrey Zients, according to Reichert.

“What we do is invite those members that have those issues and concerns to come to these meetings and have that face-to-face opportunity with either the ambassador and/or Mr. Zients,” he said.

The topics of the working groups exceed the issues that U.S. businesses have flagged as problems. Their list has focused on biologics, financial services data localization and tobacco.

The working group on biologics met with Froman during the week of March 14, but lawmakers who participated in the meeting said afterward <http://insidetrade.com/node/153220> that the administration has yet to come forward with specific fixes on this issue. Ways & Means Republicans view the market exclusivity period in the TPP as too short.

Reichert said the dialogue between Ways & Means Republicans and the administration about their TPP objections has ramped up, but backed the notion that members are still waiting for USTR to come forward with specific solutions.

“So the dialogue's intensified, but I think you're correct in saying that what we're expecting is that the administration comes forward with some solutions to the concerns that our members have raised,” Reichert said. He added that the administration has not yet provided any timeline for providing these solutions.

Reichert said he would be open to voting on TPP during the lame-duck session of Congress after the November elections, but reiterated that the substance of resolving members' complaints will drive the timing of a vote.

 “If the administration provides solutions that satisfy the members' needs, that will drive the timeline, and that timeline could very well be lame duck, but again it all depends on the administration coming forward with their solutions to these concerns,” he said.

Reichert said the carveout of tobacco control measures from the investor-state dispute settlement was briefly brought up during the biologics working group meetings, but left aside as a topic for another session. He said he has spoken with Froman on the phone several times in addition to the ambassador's in-person meetings with Ways & Means Republicans.

In December 2015, Reichert flagged the TPP's market access outcome <http://insidetrade.com/node/151577> on dairy and rice as well as the U.S.-Vietnam side letter on labor rights as problems for Ways & Means Republicans. Their objections on the Vietnam labor plan is rooted in their belief <http://insidetrade.com/node/151578> that the U.S. should not be promoting the formation of unions in other countries, he said at the time.

 
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