Dems Urge Obama, Froman to Shed Investor-State Proposal in TTIP
The Obama administration should get rid of its investor-state dispute settlement proposal for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, said three Senate and five House Ways and Means Democrats in separate Dec. 17 letters to President Barack Obama and U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman. The investor-state provision has caused concern among many U.S. and European activists, as well as lawmakers and officials. Newly-minted European Union Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström recently said investor-state may not make it in a final deal (see 1411190021).
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The exclusion of investor-state will balance “investor protections and the public interest,” and will increase transatlantic support for the pact, said the lawmakers, led by Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., in the letter to Obama. “The inclusion of investor-to-state dispute settlement process in previous trade agreements advantages foreign investors over domestic ones and threatens U.S. laws, regulations, and judicial decisions protecting health and public safety,” said the letter. “These provisions provide foreign investors the right to either bypass our own courts entirely or to undermine them by challenging their results before panels of private arbitrators who are not required to protect the public interest or to utilize American legal principles and precedent.”
Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., echoed those concerns in their letter to Froman (here). "Because the investor-state dispute process is available only to investors, it gives investors a far greater ability to challenge state practices than it gives labor unions, environmental groups, or any other non-investor with an interest in a trade deal." Those lawmakers also cautioned Obama on potentially harmful financial market access and capital control provisions.
Email ITTNews@warren-news.com for a copy of the House letter.