This letter is directed to my Congressman, U.S. Rep. Jim Himes of the 4th District concerning the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement.
The proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement should not be voted on during the “lame duck” session of Congress after the election — that unique moment in the political calendar when representatives who have retired or been voted out of office still hold their seats for a short time and political accountability to constituents is at its lowest.
The TPP presents an unprecedented threat to many of the goals American workers share and for which your constituents appreciate your leadership: good jobs, higher wages, strong climate policies and a livable environment, affordable medicines, safe food, and human rights.
The workers of America cannot allow the TPP’s incentives for job offshoring, lack of disciplines against currency cheating, and weak rules of origin destroy more American jobs. It is heartbreaking that the administration has signed a TPP that rolls back the reforms to trade-pact environmental and medicine patent rules.
It is alarming that the TPP would expand the scope of the notorious investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) regime by adding new rights for foreign firms to challenge our domestic laws and empowering an additional 9,200 foreign firms to attack our laws in foreign arbitration tribunals. That this pact includes Brunei, which recently implemented Sharia-based laws for the stoning-to-death of gays and unwed mothers, and Malaysia, which is among the worst nations for human trafficking, is intolerable.
Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders have both announced opposition to a lame duck vote on the TPP, which they have denounced as dangerous to our economy, public health and the environment. I ask Rep. Himes to please join them in voicing your opposition to a lame duck TPP vote as well.
Michael Treadwell lives in Westport.