A group of Republican senators renewed a call for 12-year biologics patent protection and strong overall intellectual property rights in the Trans-Pacific Partnership in a May 13 letter to U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman. The development of life-saving biologics requires “substantial investment,” said the 11 senators, led by Sens. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas. “Biologics are the future of medicine but are riskier endeavors with lower success rates than traditional treatment options," said the letter, noting that biologics can cure cancer, arthritis and other diseases. “Not offering adequate protections that will continue to spur innovation and investment will ultimately lead to companies taking fewer risks, and patients globally not receiving treatments that may have been developed under an appropriate standard.” Democratic TPP critics, like Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., argue 12-year data protection prevents generic product treatment globally (see 1502270018). Senate Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, has also been a strong advocate for 12-year biologics protection (see 13120415).
The U.S. still has “maximum leverage” to set strict, enforceable labor standards in Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations, and U.S. negotiators need to ensure TPP countries comply before TPP “benefits begin to accrue,” said more than a dozen Democratic senators in a recent letter to U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman and Labor Secretary Tom Perez (here). The Obama administration should include labor standards, which must actually impact foreign law and practice, in the “base text of TPP and to require implementation and enforcement of those standards” before tariff elimination and other benefits take effect, said the letter.
House Republican trade leadership pushed the Senate to keep working to hammer out a compromise on trade legislation, following the defeat of a vote to open debate on the Senate floor by Democratic opposition. “I hope my Democratic colleagues who support trade will reconsider their approach and allow the Senate to act,” said House Ways and Means Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., on May 12. “With so much at stake, we must continue to move ahead."
Since International Trade Today's last legislative update, lawmakers introduced the following trade-related bills, including three from Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, that are updated versions of trade legislation introduced in April (see 1504230001):
Export-Import Bank opponents “blow off” the benefits the credit agency provides to small businesses, but the June 30 looming deadline for Ex-Im authorization will kill both small business and corporate export projects and put an unclear number of Americans out of work, said Coalition For Employment Through Exports John Hardy at a National Foreign Trade Council event on May 5. The credit agency faces an uncertain future, as many House conservatives continue to urge Congress to allow the bank to expire. The battle over reauthorization will likely heat up in June once the next legislative work period gets underway, said Hardy.
The House returns to Capitol Hill on May 13 after a roughly 12-day recess, and the chamber doesn’t plan to take up trade legislation this week, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said in his legislative schedule (here). House leadership is planning to hold votes on an Environmental Protection Agency bill, defense authorization, the Senate-passed Iran legislation and a surveillance measure. The Senate will vote on May 12 to advance trade legislation on that side of the Capitol (see 1505080008).
There’s still time for the South African poultry industry to give more market access to U.S. exporters before Congress ultimately passes a ten-year African Growth and Opportunity Act, said Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., on May 7. Coons recently said he may offer an amendment that would terminate South African beneficiary status after three years once the renewal hits the Senate floor (see 1504230067). He and Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., have for months battled to force removal of South African antidumping duties on U.S. poultry, but the lawmakers say South Africa’s poultry industry hasn’t budged (see 1503310069).
House Ways and Means ranking member Sandy Levin, D-Mich., called on the White House to ensure stronger labor protections take shape in the Trans-Pacific Partnership ahead of President Barack Obama’s May 8 trade speech at Nike headquarters in Beaverton, Ore. Levin said TPP doesn’t have the same labor assurances that the previous administration ultimately agreed to before Congress implemented recent free trade agreements with Peru, Panama, South Korea and Colombia. “Right now, the laws of Mexico, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei are out of compliance with the labor provisions in the TPP,” said Levin (here). “The Administration has not provided members of Congress with the specific changes that are being discussed with these countries – even on a confidential basis – so there is no way to know the full changes that are being discussed.” Labor conditions in Vietnam are particularly “troubling,” and the administration “refuses to accept a suggestion with respect to Vietnam that an independent panel be established from the beginning to ensure compliance with the labor obligations and expedite a dispute,” said Levin, who has stayed out of Trade Promotion Authority negotiations to focus on TPP.
Lawmakers introduced the following trade-related bill since International Trade Today's last legislative update:
Lawmakers should remove language in the House defense authorization bill that would raise the threshold more than 300 percent for contracts exempt from compliance with the U.S. preference provisions of the Berry Amendment and the Kissell Amendment, said textile and apparel domestic manufacturers and importers in recent days. The Berry Amendment requires the Defense Department to give procurement preference to U.S. companies. The Kissell measure applies to the Department of Homeland Security.