<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><i class="">From Global Trade Watch...</i><br class=""><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; text-align: center;" class=""><b class=""><span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">Reporters’ Memo: President’s Annual March Trade Agenda</span></b><span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866666793823242px;" class=""><b class=""><i class=""><span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> </span></i></b></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-align: center;" class=""><b class=""><i class=""><span style="font-size: 14.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">Administration Continues to Use Debunked Talking Points to Sell TPP</span></i></b><span style="font-size: 14.5pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">The Obama administration released the 2016 Trade Policy Agenda today as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) faces increasing bipartisan opposition in the U.S. House and Senate. However, instead of addressing the growing chorus of concerns in the 2016 trade agenda, the administration continues to push debunked talking points to the American people in hopes of selling the controversial agreement.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">Public Citizen has already debunked most of talking points included in the 2016 trade agenda report:<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in;" class=""><i class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">Debunked talking point</span></i><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">:<i class=""> More than 18,000 tax cuts on Made-in-America exports.<o:p class=""></o:p></i></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in;" class=""><i class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> </span></i></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Symbol;" class="">·<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman';" class=""> </span></span><u class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">Reality</span></u><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">: The Obama administration is trying to shift focus to an impressive-sounding number with its mantra about TPP delivering “18,000 tax cuts for Made in America exports.” But that is just the <u class="">raw number of tariff lines</u> cut by the five TPP nations with which the United States does not already have free trade agreements (FTAs). </span><a href="http://citizen.typepad.com/eyesontrade/2016/02/tpp-18000-tax-cut-exports-talking-point.html" style="color: purple;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">The United States only sold goods to those nations in less than 7,500 of the 18,000 categories.</span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> Indeed, the United States exports no goods to any nation under some of the touted 18,000 tariff lines.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-align: center;" class=""><i class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> </span></i></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-align: center;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""><img apple-inline="yes" id="7911AA87-0D5E-4D22-A66F-E7B69AB281EB" height="290" width="502" apple-width="yes" apple-height="yes" src="cid:image001.jpg@01D1748F.8C8A8A50" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-align: center;" class=""><i class=""><span style="color: rgb(31, 73, 125);" class=""> </span></i></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-align: center;" class=""><i class=""><span style="color: rgb(31, 73, 125);" class=""> </span></i></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><i class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">Debunked talking point: The President’s trade agenda is focused on supporting U.S. jobs and raising wages.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></i></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;" class=""><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Symbol;" class="">·<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman';" class=""> </span></span><u class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">Reality</span></u><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">: </span><b class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">The TPP includes </span></b><a href="https://ustr.gov/sites/default/files/TPP-Final-Text-Investment.pdf" style="color: purple;" class=""><b class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">rules</span></b></a><b class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> that make it cheaper and less risky to offshore U.S. jobs to low wage nations. The pro-free trade Cato Institute calls these investor protections a </span></b><a href="http://www.cato.org/publications/free-trade-bulletin/compromise-advance-trade-agenda-purge-negotiations-investor-state" style="color: purple;" class=""><b class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">subsidy on offshoring</span></b></a><b class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">.</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> The administration stopped claiming the TPP would create jobs after a four Pinocchio rating by the </span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2015/01/30/the-obama-administrations-illusionary-job-gains-from-the-trans-pacific-partnership/" style="color: purple;" class=""><i class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">Washington Post</span></i><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> fact checker</span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">. Since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), more than </span><a href="http://www.bls.gov/cew/datatoc.htm" style="color: purple;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">57,000 U.S. manufacturing facilities</span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> have closed and </span><a href="http://www.bls.gov/ces/" style="color: purple;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">five</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> million U.S. manufacturing jobs</span></a><span class="MsoHyperlink" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> </span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">– one in four – were lost with more than </span><a href="http://www.citizen.org/taadatabase" style="color: purple;" class=""><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">875,000 U.S. workers certified</span></a><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> under just one narrow U.S. Department of Labor program. <o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><i class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> </span></i></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in;" class=""><i class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">Debunked Talking Point: Putting more money in middle class pockets.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></i></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Symbol;" class="">·<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman';" class=""> </span></span><u class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">Reality</span></u><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">: </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">A </span><a href="http://cepr.net/publications/reports/net-effect-of-the-tpp-on-us-wages" style="color: purple;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">recent study</span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> finds the <b class="">TPP would spell a pay cut for all but the richest 10 percent of Americans </b>by exacerbating income inequality, as past trade deals have done. That would contradict Obama’s 2015 State of the Union inequality reduction goal. Macroeconomic theory predicts if Americans face more competition from workers in Vietnam who make less than 65 cents/hour, wages will be pushed down. Sixty percent of </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">manufacturing workers losing jobs to trade who find reemployment face pay cuts, with one in three losing more than 20 percent, per U.S. DoL data. T</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">here is </span><a href="http://www.citizen.org/documents/trade-and-income-inequality.pdf" style="color: purple;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">academic consensus</span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> that trade has contributed to the major rise in inequality.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in;" class=""><i class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">Debunked talking point: The TPP is preserving our environment.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></i></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Symbol;" class="">·<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman';" class=""> </span></span><u class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">Reality</span></u><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">: </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">The environmental groups that have celebrated Obama’s achievements with the global climate treaty and his decision to the stop the XL Pipeline call the TPP an act of </span><a href="http://www.nationalobserver.com/2015/11/10/news/trans-pacific-partnership-deal-act-climate-denial" style="color: purple;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">“climate denial.”</span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> The pact would </span><a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/sites/www.sierraclub.org/files/uploads-wysiwig/tpp-analysis-updated.pdf" style="color: purple;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">roll back</span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> the environmental standards that President George W. Bush was pressured into including in his trade deals. Indeed, <b class="">in a recent <i class="">Newsweek</i> op-ed, the</b><a href="http://www.newsweek.com/weighing-pacific-trade-deals-green-demands-411396" style="color: purple;" class=""><b class=""><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;" class=""> </span>Cato Institute celebrated the TPP’s watered down environmental terms</b></a><b class="">.</b> Environmental groups listed on the </span><a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/economy/trade" style="color: purple;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">White House website</span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> as supporting the deal, including </span><a href="http://www.nrdc.org/media/2015/151105.asp" style="color: purple;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">NRDC</span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> and</span><a href="https://www.defenders.org/press-release/trans-pacific-partnership-falls-short-wildlife" style="color: purple;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">Defenders of Wildlife</span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">, in fact came out in opposition after seeing the final text.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in;" class=""><i class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">Debunked talking point</span></i><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">: <i class="">The TPP is promoting our values.<o:p class=""></o:p></i></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.5in;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Symbol;" class="">·<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman';" class=""> </span></span><u class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">Reality</span></u><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">: </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">While the Obama administration is celebrated for its defense of gay equality after dust-binning the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy and joining those announcing that the Defense of Marriage Act was unconstitutional, it decided to allow Brunei to remain in the TPP even after the country announced that it would begin stoning to death gays and single mothers under new sharia-based laws. <b class="">This has led to </b></span><a href="http://www.washingtonblade.com/2015/11/07/controversial-trade-deal-lacks-lgbt-specific-provisions/" style="color: purple;" class=""><b class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">LGBTQ groups joining the TPP opposition</span></b></a><b class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></b></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><i class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> </span></i></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in;" class=""><i class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">Debunked talking point: The TPP is promoting the U.S. auto industry.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></i></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Symbol;" class="">·<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman';" class=""> </span></span><u class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">Reality</span></u><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">: </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">The TPP would threaten the president’s successful rescue of the U.S. auto industry and thousands of U.S. jobs. It would allow vehicles comprised mainly of Chinese and other non-TPP country parts and labor to gain duty free access. This would gut the rules of origin established in NAFTA that condition duty free access on 62.5 percent of value being from NAFTA countries. <b class="">Ford has supported all past U.S. trade deals, but </b></span><a href="http://www.freep.com/story/news/2015/10/05/ford-others-say-trade-deal-lacks-currency-protections/73372996/" style="color: purple;" class=""><b class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">opposes</span></b></a><b class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> the TPP. <o:p class=""></o:p></span></b></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in;" class=""><i class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">Debunked talking point: 98 percent of U.S. exporters are small or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).<o:p class=""></o:p></span></i></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Symbol;" class="">·<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman';" class=""> </span></span><u class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">Reality</span></u><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">: SMEs comprise most U.S. exporting firms simply because they constitute 99.7 percent of U.S. firms overall. However, only 3 percent of U.S. SMEs export any good to any country. In contrast, 38 percent of large U.S. firms are exporters. The relatively few small businesses that do actually export have seen </span><a href="http://www.citizen.org/documents/raw-deals-for-small-businesses.pdf" style="color: purple;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">even more disappointing export performance under FTAs than large firms have seen</span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">. <b class="">U.S. small businesses have seen their exports to Korea <i class="">decline</i> even more sharply than large firms under the Korea FTA (a 14 percent versus 3 percent decrease), while small firms’ exports to Mexico and Canada under NAFTA have grown less than half as much as large firms’ exports. </b>Indeed, small firms’ exports to all <i class="">non-NAFTA</i> countries have <i class="">exceeded</i> by more than 50 percent the growth of their exports to NAFTA partners.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""> </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-align: center;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class="">###</span></div></div></body></html>