Sen. Sessions Continues to Have Doubts on TPA
Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., voiced concerns with Trade Promotion Authority and the Trans-Pacific Partnership at the outset of Senate debate on TPA legislation on May 18, but stopped short of pledging opposition. Sessions has emerged in recent weeks as the most aggressive Republican critic of status quo U.S. trade policy in the chamber. The TPP threatens to damage U.S. manufacturing and worsen the country’s trade deficit without adequately addressing currency manipulation, Sessions said on the Senate floor, echoing a statement he released in early May (see 1505040066).
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Sessions again argued Congress should reject the expedited legislative measures in the 2015 bill, namely an amendment ban and forced up-or-down vote. “I got to tell you, I’m having my doubts,” said Sessions. “I have voted for other trade agreements, and I’m uneasy about this.” TPP supporters often have an “inflexible ideology” that trade agreements invariably benefit the U.S. through access to cheaper products. Foreign countries, including TPP partners, are continuing to impose non-tariff trade barriers, as they pledge to slash tariffs on imports, Sessions said. Congress should spend more time analyzing the “actual impact, not theoretical impact” of trade policy, he said.
Sessions is one of only two sitting Republicans to vote “no” on TPA in 2002, the last time the Senate voted on the legislation. The other Republican, Richard Shelby, R-Ala., has repeatedly declined to commit to a “yes” or “no” vote on TPA over recent weeks.