Sen. Brown Echoes Calls for Tobacco Regulatory Policy in TPP
The administration is prioritizing trade liberalization over public health in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations with regard to tobacco policy, Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said in a Sept. 12 letter to the U.S. Trade Representative. Brown urged the administration to include a policy that enables specific countries in the potential TPP agreement to regulate tobacco. U.S. health groups submitted a letter to the administration on Sept. 11 pressing for a similar policy (see 13091221). Last year, the USTR proposed a “safe harbor” provision that would have significantly limited efforts by Big Tobacco companies to challenge anti-smoking efforts under trade rules created by the TPP,” said Brown. “Last month, the Administration changed course, arguing that the U.S. can best balance the priorities of public health advocates and key TPP stakeholders by not excluding any one product, including tobacco, from rules of the trade agreement.”
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Brown advocated for stricter enforcement of illegal steel trade practices that come at the expense of U.S. companies in a separate press release on his meeting with the "Steel Caucus" (here). Brown said he was worried about the "scourge of foreign competitors whose unfair and illegal trade practices put U.S. companies, including several based in Ohio, at an unfair disadvantage in the international market," the release said. “Our workers can compete with anyone in the world when on a level playing field. That is why we must enforce international law and impose import duties to counteract illegal trade practices from foreign competitors like China," said Brown.